Do you find yourself continually wanting to be first, right, best, richest, or highest? Each of those traits has one thing in common: comparison. When we compare ourselves to others in order to determine where we rate, we are, most likely, experiencing pride of life, which is a heart issue (see 1 John 2:16-17). President Theodore Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Josh McDowell taught that comparing and its cousin, labeling, result from a low self-esteem. Ironically, that’s the sting of the pride of life. Comparison ultimately leads to sorrow.

God intends something quite different for us: authenticity, reflecting the design of the Designer. He created us for a purpose, to be shaped in the image of His Son (see Romans 8:29). King David noted we discover true joy when we place our hearts in God’s restorative hands: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Delight means we make our hearts pliable, like clay in God’s hands, a picture of humility. Give, nathan in Hebrew, means God will orchestrate our desires to be like His. This shift from pride to humility, from comparison to authenticity, results in joy because we reflect the true design of our one and only Designer.

Would you like to stop comparing and begin to experience the joy of authenticity? Humbly ask God to shape your heart to be like His. He will free you from comparison and the pride of life, and use you to bring His restoration to others.

Episode 311: Three Habits of Highly Destructive People, Part Three: Pride from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.