COMPARISONS... (From Niki Melton)

Dare to Compare
Which is bigger- a chair or a car? Answer: the car is bigger. What about a house, is the car bigger or smaller? Answer: smaller. But how can that be if the car is defined as being bigger? Of course, the explanation is that it depends on what you compare the item to, but that is a bit of a problem for us as humans, and Christians. We compare ourselves to each other and then define ourselves accordingly. Some days we end up A+ Awesome, then come crashing down because we ran into someone who does the same, but is nicer, more attractive, and has a better relationship with their spouse – or their mother. Or they do more things for their church, community, or… mother. Maybe they suck at personal relationships, and we are back to feeling Awesome again. Point is, we are not meant to live in that instability of circumstantial comparison.

One of the most difficult things for us as individuals to comprehend is God’s love for us. Now I don’t mean that it is a complicated concept, but the stark contradiction of his relationship vs. human tendency makes us want to question and put contingencies on it.
“Well, maybe God loves me, but only compared to his feelings towards murderers. – Oh wait, he loves them too. Okay, well maybe then when compared to the most wretched person imaginable – Chief of All Sinners (see what I did there, lol). Oh wait, the bible says that it’s all sin in God’s eyes.” (See Rom. 3:23 and Jas 2:10)

So, the answer is this: God loves you just as you are, regardless of where you are, because it is the way he says it is. There is no comparison. He sent his beloved son, not so that he could love us again, but because he already does love us. (See Jn. 3:16 and Jn. 15:13)

Sometimes we think Christ died for God’s benefit.
“We messed it up, so therefore God had to do something so that he could look at us again.” (Insert age-old Christianese of “God can’t look at sin”)
Truth is, his position on loving us has NEVER changed. There was never a “bigger” or “smaller”, it just was. What a beautiful gift! Let it free you today. You are wholly loved by God. Always have been, always will be.