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They are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! -II Cor. 10:12

Catalyst Takeaway #3 – The Dangers of Comparing

Rick Warren had an incredible talk at Catalyst. At one point he started talking about comparison and said there are two dangers that come with comparing:

1.) We’ll find people better than us and get discouraged

2.) We’ll find people we’re better than and get into pride

He went on to say that at our judgment, Jesus isn’t going to ask, “How come you weren’t more like them(your heroes, the people your comparing yourself to, etc.)?” He’s going to say,”I made you to be you – I don’t need doubles, why weren’t you more like you?”

Jud Wilhite said, “Until you settle the identity issue in your life – you’ll never have or be enough…there is no enough – you need to learn to enjoy the journey. We need to surrender our view of us for God’s view of us. When you know God’s love for you – you don’t need validated from any other source.”

I think we all struggle with identity and comparison issues in our lives, however I believe everyday we can take one step closer to realizing who we are in Him. The more revelation we have that we’re complete in our union with Christ (Col. 2:10), the faster comparison and insecurity will fade away.

Thoughts?

¹⁰ So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.                                                                                                            – Col. 2:10

Zack Blair shared this verse with us Saturday in his message at 19 North and it really stuck out to me. He was telling us that we need to be 100% confident in who we are in Christ before we’ll ever be able to love others the way we’re meant to. Why? Because nobody else can make us happy or make us complete other than God.

The truth is that we’ll always have the opportunity to be insecure about something in our lives. Often times we’ll try to manipulate other to meet our needs and come up empty time and time again. Until we find our security and worth in God, we’ll always be insecure!

I want to take a minute and share some things that have helped me overcome insecurity (I’ve come a long way and still have a long way to go, but I’m getting there!!!) – Here we go:

Realize that the World isn’t Paying Nearly as Much Attention to You as You Think – I joke about it, but don’t you feel like you’re a gladiator in the middle of the coliseum in life? You feel as though millions of people are watching every step and detail of your life and they’re able to see your every imperfection. That’s a huge lie and there is a ton of pride in that statement – truth is that no one is really paying that much attention to your life!

There is a Difference between Joy and Happiness – Proverbs says when God blesses us, He’ll add no sorrow to it. That is what separates Godly prosperity in life from the world’s prosperity in life.  Happiness is a result of external things (materialism, relationships, and other things we expect to make us happy). You can have all the stuff in the world and be absolutely miserable. Joy, however is a fruit of the spirit and a result of a relationship with God. When you know you’re complete with God, you’ll have a joy that you can’t even put into words – you’ll suddenly be able to enjoy everything in your life in a way you never have before because you know the only way to find true joy is to put God first in everyday life.

Realize What You Can and Cannot Change – You need to realize that you’ll never be able to change what you look like, what family you grew up in, etc. However, you do have a choice in how you live and conduct yourself. You have a choice about your attitude in life. Once you recognize the things you cannot change, you can focus on building the most important thing you can change and that is your life. Everyday you’re shaping who you are, so stop trying to change things that you can’t change and start changing the things you can.

Recognize that Beauty is more than Skin Deep - I Peter says we should be known for who we are on the inside. I know looks are important and we need to be attracted to someone we like, but how many beautiful people do you know that opened their mouths and started talking and suddenly they weren’t so beautiful any more? How many less attractive people do you know that once they started talking they became a lot more attractive? In the long term – who you are on the inside will far outweigh who you are on the outside – ask any married couple! Focus on becoming beautiful on the inside!

That is enough for now – I may add some more tomorrow, hope that helps!

What are some things you’ve learned that help you overcome insecurities?

²⁰Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” ²²Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.”

John 21:20-22

When analyzing Peter’s question you can’t help but hear the insecurity behind it. I think insecurity it something we all deal with in some way, shape, or form. Insecurity can almost seem like a journey in our life can’t it? If I had to map out my journey of insecurity it would like this:

• When I was young I was very insecure because of my weight
• When I lost weight, I was insecure about my chin
• When I got over my chin, I was insecure about the size of my head! haha
• When I was over that, I was insecure about my intelligence and where I was going in life
• When I got over that, I was insecure by comparing where I was in life to other peoples success
• When I got over that I was insecure about….the list could go on forever and ever

In evaluating my life so far – I have yet to find one benefit of being insecure. I have found that all of the outcomes of being insecure are negative – here are just a few I can think of:

Insecurity Will Hold You Back from Taking Risks -Insecurity literally cripples you. Faith is spelled R-I-S-K isn’t it? A lack of confidence in who we are will always hold us back from stepping out. If we never step out, we’ll never know what we’re missing out on.

Insecurity Will Cause You to Miss Out on God’s Best for Your Life – Again, you never know what’s on the other side of stepping out.

Insecurity Will Give you an Unrealistic View of Who You Are - When we focus on our insecurities and dwell on them night and day – we’ll start exaggerating things about ourselves. The longer we dwell on these things, the more we’ll believe them. Once we believe them – we’ll make all of our decisions based on an unrealistic view of our self.

Insecurity Will Cause People to want to Avoid You – Have you ever been around someone who is extremely insecure? It drains the life out of you…. nobody wants to be around someone like that.

Insecurity is an Indicator of Where Your Relationship with God is – Insecure people haven’t fully come to the place where they know who they are in Christ. They haven’t learned to appreciate that God has created them and literally cares about every little detail of their lives. God loves them!

I’ve battled with insecurity my whole life – and I’m determined to get it out and keep it out of my life for the remainder of my days here! Tomorrow I want to focus on some thing we can do to battle insecurity…

What are some other negative outcomes of being insecure? Thoughts?