Comparisons And Competition

Comparisons And Competition
Our orld today is run by those who made it up on the scale of competition but is this mentality a healthy one in Christianity? It depends…We want to go to the best school, wear the most trendy clothes, drive the most expensive cars get the highest degrees possible, why all that? Well, what’s wrong to want to be the best in your field? There is nothing wrong with that…apparently at least.

When we're getting at the bottom of things there will always be someone who is doing better than you and there will always be others who are below your level in a certain area so if your goal is to maintain a position in a certain field you’ll fight a constant battle with yourself and with the competition. As long as you want to stay on top you must keep fighting!

However, I am referring here at Christian living and when it comes to this, the spirit of competition and comparison is the root of legalism that promotes performance. "Which choir is singing better? Who has more members in the Church? How many people have you talked to about Christ? Oh and if it is not you or your church best at doing these things then we’ve got to do something about it. But whom do you compare yourself with?

There will always be a better singer and you’ll always find someone who is less gifted than you in this area, there will always be room for better in evangelism and all the other activities in Church. However, we are missing the point if we are focusing on the activity.

I am not saying we shouldn’t do all these, but I am trying to emphasize that the comparison and competition should not be the motivation. The only competition you should be in is with your own heart, and that is to make sure you let the love of God motivate all you do. For instance if you have a 1 gallon container, can you pour inside it 2 gallons of water? No, you can’t! But if you have a 2 gallons container and you want to fill only half of it, you surely can do that!

God gave us all different capacities, levels, experiences and God will not ask from you more than He has endowed you with! Don’t compare yourself to others but simply make sure you give your best, you do your best with your resources and don’t worry about competition! There is no competition (or should not be) in the Body of Christ.

It is however useless to cut the branches of competition off, they will eventually grow back again. We have to deal with the roots of it.

The roots of competition in the Body of Christ are mainly in the self-sufficiency mentality. Now, of course we say we are saved trough grace and Jesus Christ’s sacrifice yet somehow there is an unwritten law that we need to live up to: go to church every Sunday, tithe, don’t do this and don’t do that and we replace the Old Testament law with a self imposed law. It is very subtle and at times it is so hidden in a sincere zeal for God that it is only when you fail that you come to realize you have been doing things trough your own power and not trough the Holy Spirit of God. To be more specific I realized this only after I failed doing things trough my own power and thinking there is nothing more to Christianity, I’ve done my best.

When I reached the point where I didn’t know what to do because my power was simply not enough in the spiritual battle I encountered (I didn’t know that the spiritual realm was so real until then, I didn’t really know what a demonic attack was), it was then that I have completely said to God "I can’t unless YOU help me!" And HE did help me praised be His Holy Name forever! Since, I know that trough my own spiritual strength I am not capable to fight the spiritual battle out there, but only the Holy Spirit I received trough Jesus Christ can renew my mind, can transform me and give me that victorious life in God. I am not saying that I arrived in this, but I believe I have left. I am moving trough God, I let Him enlighten my thinking and my heart every day with His Word, the Bible and that nurtures my soul.

The whole point in this article is that I didn’t even realize I was still trusting my own power to a degree (while I was saying that "I trust God") and even to this day I am sure there’s still room to grow in this but at least I saw my problem, it was a start point for me. When I compared myself to others I was thinking that well…I was better than many because I lived holy in this and didn’t do that etc. However…when God shows us the real picture things change. Be prepared for a change because God loves you and will show you the real picture!
By Claudia Miclaus