SPEAKER_00: Comparison is one of the quietest thieves there is.
SPEAKER_00: We measure our finances, our relationships, our jobs, our homes, even our kids against everyone around us.
SPEAKER_00: And it almost never leaves us better off.
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 6:4, Paul offers a pointed alternative.
SPEAKER_00: Each one should test their own actions, then they can take pride in themselves alone without comparing themselves to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is writing to a church that kept losing its focus on Jesus, instead shifting it onto each other, sizing themselves up by other people's standards.
SPEAKER_00: His fix is almost startling in its simplicity.
SPEAKER_00: Tend your own work.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what God has already put in front of you and stop measuring your life against a life that isn't yours.
SPEAKER_00: The freedom isn't in winning the comparison, it's in laying it down.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin by thanking God that you don't have to compare yourself to anyone, because he is the one who tells you who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Praise him that your standing with him is a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you tend to measure yourself against?
SPEAKER_00: What name or face comes to mind first?
SPEAKER_00: Tell him where the comparing has worn you down or pulled you off course, and ask him to make his voice clearly heard every time the comparison creeps back in the.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.