"But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load."

Let me get vulnerable with you because I need to practice what I'm preaching. I struggle with comparison. Not the kind where I look at someone's car or house and wish I had what they have. It's far worse than that. I compare God's decision to bless another person in ministry for the same work I'm doing. I look at what I've endured, what I've sacrificed, what I've worked for, and then I see someone else receive the same blessing or more with less effort. And in that moment, I realize I'm the first laborer in the vineyard, angry at the master's generosity.

Here's what comparison reveals...I'm not resting in acceptance. I'm chasing approval. I'm not trusting God's goodness toward me. I'm measuring His goodness by what He gives someone else. And just like the evil eye we talked about yesterday, comparison distorts everything. It takes the light of God's blessing and turns it into the darkness of resentment.

Paul tells us to test our own work so that our reason to boast will be in ourselves alone and not in our neighbor. That doesn't mean we become arrogant about our accomplishments. It means we stop measuring our worth, our success, our value by looking at what someone else has. Each person will bear his own load. You're responsible for your assignment, not theirs.

But here's the incredible thing about comparison...it's actually a diagnostic tool. When you find yourself comparing, it's revealing something deeper. It's showing you that you're living like a servant instead of a son. Because sons don't compare. Sons don't measure the father's love by how much their sibling receives. Sons rest in their identity, in their place at the table, in the security of belonging. Servants compare because servants have to earn their place. And if someone else is earning more for the same work, it threatens everything.

So when you catch yourself comparing your marriage to someone else's, your kids to someone else's kids, your ministry impact to someone else's platform, your financial situation to someone else's comfort, here's what I need you to know...it's not about them. It's about you believing you're still a servant trying to earn approval instead of a son or daughter already accepted.

Tomorrow, we'll discover what it means to seek THE Way instead of A way, and why surrender is the only path to freedom.

The next time you feel the pull to compare yourself to someone else, stop immediately and list three ways God has specifically blessed YOU. Train your eyes to see His goodness toward you instead of His generosity toward them.