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- Apr 25, 2006
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Competing and Comparing
'A man must be content to receive the gift ... given him from heaven' John 3:27
Have you ever ruined something by trying to use it for something it wasn't designed for? Like using your bed as a trampoline and you've broken it? Or using your shoes as a hammer, turning those stilettos into flatties? Or using your little sister as a goalpost and, well, she's still got the bruises to prove it?
Ephesians 2:10 tells us, 'we are God's handiwork, created ... to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.' Notice that it doesn't say we were all created identically to do exactly the same things. So it's really important we find out what we're good at - what God prepared for us - and get on with it.
We mustn't allow jealousy or envy to creep in and ruin what we have. Disciples of John the Baptist became nervous when Jesus arrived in town because people began to follow Jesus and not John. But John replied, 'A man must be content to receive the gift ... given him from heaven ... I am not the Christ ... I have [only] been sent before Him ... to be His appointed forerunner, His messenger.'
John knew there is no sense in competing and comparing yourself to others, we are simply to do what we've been created to do. Simply be you! Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II, said this: 'Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty.'
written by Bob Gass
'A man must be content to receive the gift ... given him from heaven' John 3:27
Have you ever ruined something by trying to use it for something it wasn't designed for? Like using your bed as a trampoline and you've broken it? Or using your shoes as a hammer, turning those stilettos into flatties? Or using your little sister as a goalpost and, well, she's still got the bruises to prove it?
Ephesians 2:10 tells us, 'we are God's handiwork, created ... to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.' Notice that it doesn't say we were all created identically to do exactly the same things. So it's really important we find out what we're good at - what God prepared for us - and get on with it.
We mustn't allow jealousy or envy to creep in and ruin what we have. Disciples of John the Baptist became nervous when Jesus arrived in town because people began to follow Jesus and not John. But John replied, 'A man must be content to receive the gift ... given him from heaven ... I am not the Christ ... I have [only] been sent before Him ... to be His appointed forerunner, His messenger.'
John knew there is no sense in competing and comparing yourself to others, we are simply to do what we've been created to do. Simply be you! Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II, said this: 'Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty.'
written by Bob Gass
