{"id":7984,"date":"2024-02-02T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T09:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/your-daily-bible-verse-daily-devotional-bible-study-2\/"},"modified":"2024-02-02T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T09:07:10","slug":"your-daily-bible-verse-daily-devotional-bible-study-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/your-daily-bible-verse-daily-devotional-bible-study-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Daily Bible Verse – Daily Devotional Bible Study"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Comparison Is a Trap (Hebrews 12:1<\/a>)<\/strong>
By: Betsy St. Amant Haddox<\/p>\n

Hebrews 12:1<\/a> (ESV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us\u2026\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Comparison is an ugly manipulator, destined to destroy\u2014and it goes hand in hand with envy<\/a>. No good comes from comparing yourself to someone else. It\u2019s easy to do, of course\u2014maybe you\u2019re hyper aware of your neighbor\u2019s manicured lawn while your own front yard is covered in brown spots. Or maybe your best friend got the new SUV you\u2019d been eyeing but couldn\u2019t afford, or your co-worker got chosen for the big promotion. You look at them and think, why not me?<\/p>\n

You immediately began creating a list in your mind of all the ways you\u2019re superior and should have gotten it. Or perhaps you instead began to beat yourself up, charting the ways you\u2019ve messed up and that\u2019s surely why you were passed over.<\/p>\n

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Thoughts like that are only an endless, dark pit of the mind – one into which the devil loves nudging Christians. If he can\u2019t have our security and eternal souls, he sure enough tries to steal our joy and tempt us into as much sin as possible in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Think about this- if we\u2019re so busy comparing ourselves to others around us, if we\u2019re so consumed with seeing if we measure up or somehow condemning them if we don\u2019t, we\u2019re sure not focused on telling those people about the Gospel<\/a>. If our hearts are eaten up with \u201cless than\u201d and discontent, we\u2019re not thinking about anything holy or eternal or Kingdom-minded. Yikes! I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t want to be guilty about that. I don\u2019t want the devil to win that battle.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the Bible says about being content:<\/p>\n

Philippians 4:12-13<\/a> (ESV) I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and\u00a0hunger, abundance and\u00a0need.<\/em>\u00a0I can do all things through him who strengthens me.<\/em><\/p>\n

1 Timothy 6:6<\/a> (ESV) But godliness with contentment is great gain.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing about comparison – you\u2019ll never come out pride-free. Either you\u2019ll fancy yourself better in some way and therefore entertain pride, or you\u2019ll consider yourself lacking and invite pride to dwell in the form of a self-obsessed pity-party. (and trust me, no one RSVP’s to those events!) There\u2019s nothing attractive or edifying about either of those paths.<\/p>\n

Consider the words of Paul in Galatians 5:7<\/a> (ESV) You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying\u00a0the truth?<\/em> When we look away from our path – when we cast our eyes away from the Lord and from Truth – we run out of our lane. We sway and swerve and stumble over the lies of the enemy.<\/p>\n

We would do well to heed the warning in these Scriptures instead and turn our eyes toward Christ, the only Source of trust contentment – and the only true escape from the comparison trap.<\/p>\n