LifeLink Devotions for Tuesday, October 14, 2025

I have absolutely no idea who Shelia Butler is, but she went public with advice to a friend on X (Twitter). Her friend was obviously dating someone that Shelia did not approve of. She told her friend, “Really? Lauren? Not even in the same class as Jacob. He should’ve been gone.”

This simple exchange between two friends illustrates a problem that exists in our hearts. We have been suckered into a game that we should not be playing. We are like unsuspecting tourists at a county fair who are approached by a barker who wants us to play his carnival game. He stands in the main flow of pedestrian traffic and shouts out to us that we are guaranteed winners if we just try it once. In our innocence and naiveté we agree, and before long our pockets are empty and our self-esteem is destroyed. We walk away believing we are losers.

Such is the game of comparisons we play every day. In our innocence as children we were convinced by someone that the best way to discover our true worth was to compare ourselves to others. Perhaps we learned it by experience as others did it to us. So began a life of criticism, put downs, insults, and sarcasm designed to somehow make us feel good about who we are. In our hearts we know it doesn’t work, and in most cases makes us feel worse rather than better about who we are, but we are stuck in the bondage of the behavior. How can we be set free?

It starts with our belief in God. That’s not just a simply Sunday School answer. It’s the eternal truth of the matter. If we have established equals to God in our lives then we will never be free from the comparison chains in our mind. If we believe that there is anyone that is even in the same class as God so that they are worthy of any attempted comparison, we will never be free from the bondage in our brains. Our freedom begins with a proper perspective of Almighty God.

Because we are finite, and therefore think from a finite perspective, it is hard for us to imagine anyone so far above everyone else that they are in a totally separate class. From childhood we have been taught that no matter how good we think we are or actually are at anything, someday we will meet someone better. That fact either drives us to excel or holds us back. Either way, our motivation for action or inactivity is the same – comparison.

If we could catch a glimpse of the infinite, we would see that God is beyond comparison. He has no equal. He is in a class all by Himself. He is the one and only standard of perfection. He has the right, and is the only one who has the right, to declare His own worth, because He is the only one who is unbiased and truthful about His status.

I want to leave you with Isaiah 46:5, where God says, “To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?”

Tomorrow I will share some truths that can break the chains of comparison.

Pastor John