Cultivate Faithfulness

C.S. Lewis once said, "Comparison is the thief of joy."

Psalm 37 says:

Fret not yourself because of evildoers 

   be not envious of wrongdoers!

For they will soon fade like the grass 




 and wither like the green herb. 

Trust in the Lord, and do good;    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord,  and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Christine Caine tweeted, "The goal is to run YOUR race and finish YOUR course. Stay in YOUR lane; stop looking over YOUR shoulder. Fix YOUR eyes on Jesus!

I have been reflecting on all three of things for a couple of months.

In my experience, nothing will derail you quicker from the course God has set out for you than looking around at other people and comparing your path to theirs.

We can so easily forget the purpose God set before us when we start looking at someone else and their purpose and thinking, “I wish I could do that.”

C.S. Lewis is definitely high up on my list of wise people and he said it so simply. Comparison is the thief of joy. Whether you admit it or not, I bet you’ve experienced this. You’re excited about the possibilities of a new opportunity or the vision God’s given you UNTIL you look over and see your friend doing something completely different and think, “She’s/He’s so much better at that than me….”

God called you for a specific purpose! A SPECIFIC PURPOSE! By the very nature of that statement you can’t compare it to someone else’s purpose. So why do we?

I have Psalm 37 posted in my office, because I need to read it almost every day. The first two verses speak to comparison, but I continually have to remind myself of verse 3, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness”

The word "befriend" here also means "cultivate." What the Psalmist is telling us is to dwell in the land (wherever you are with God) and cultivate faithfulness in whatever he’s called you to do.

Someone pointed out to me once that as Christians, so many time we want the result without the process. For me, this means that we want to reach the pinnacle without laboring in the climb.

What has called you to do right now? Not what do you want to one day be doing. What do you need to cultivate faithfulness in today?

Christine Caine summed it up best for me with her tweet. When I’m frustrated with something in my life, I can usually trace it back to taking my eyes of MY purpose.

We need to stop looking around comparing our journey with Christ with everyone else’s and get to OUR OWN purpose. God created every part of YOU! Your talents, your knowledge, your personality were all created to fulfill your unique purpose! THAT’S AMAZING!!

How much more effective would we all be at spreading the Gospel if we stopped the comparison and started cultivating faithfulness in what God has called us to do?