The Comparison Trap

Open your Bibles to John chapter 10 and meet me at verse 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

and I'll read this from the Amplified Classic.

John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus tells us, the thief comes only in order to

John 10:10

steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance to the full till it overflows.

Notice that Jesus draws a line in the sand and makes a distinction between the thief and himself.

He says the thief is coming to take, to steal, kill, and destroy.

But I've come that I can give you life or that you may continue to have life and enjoy life.

That's the Zoe life, the God kind of life, the life Jesus lived here on the

earth, and that you will enjoy. you'll celebrate, you'll have abundance to the

full until it overflows.

So understand that Satan is trying to steal from you what Jesus has already given you.

If we have this posture that Satan is trying to steal from me,

I believe we'll stand up and we'll fight.

I believe we won't allow him to continue

to take from us if our posture is someone

is trying to steal now Jesus made a

difference between a thief and a robber a thief

or let me say this way a robber is someone that's gonna bop you over the head

and knock you out and take your stuff and run off that is a robber but a thief

is gonna be someone that steals from you and you not even realize they've taken it from.

They're secret. They're stealth. They've taken something from you.

You didn't even know it was gone.

And that's why Jesus didn't say a robber is going to come because you would

know that would take place.

He said, no, a thief is going to come. He's going to take from you and you not realize it.

So you already have everything that you need and the thief is stealing it from

you or he's attempting to, you're not the sick trying to get healed.

You're the healed resisting sickness. You're not the poor trying to become rich.

You are the rich, and you're resisting poverty.

And so your posture, your stance must be the thief is trying to tell you.

He's trying to get himself involved in my life so that I could then feel like

that I'm empty, I'm losing, I'm lost, when really you're winning.

You are winning and the thief is trying to take from you.

So realize what the thief is trying to do. And if you're not experiencing or

if you're not enjoying life, if you're not experiencing this abundant life,

if you're not living life to the full till it overflows,

If you're not celebrating life and thankful in life,

I submit to you that the thief is stealing from you.

He's taking from you. You may not realize it, but he's taking from you,

and it's the reason why you're not enjoying life.

Now, one way the thief steals this abundant life from us is by distracting us

from enjoying right where we are right now.

If he can distract us and make us think, Other things like you should be further

along and or you should have this and that. And that's a major distraction.

You'll you'll not celebrate where you are and the journey that God has you on.

And over the last several weeks, we have been talking about,

I believe, hindrances to joy or killers to joy.

And a few weeks ago, we talked about worry, worry being a major killer of this

abundant, joyful life that God wants us to experience. And then we really got into impatience.

You remember that being impatient and getting out of

the will of God by going a little faster than he wants you

to go Can be a hindrance and cause you not to enjoy life And a couple of weeks

we talked about fear the last few weeks and how fear will cause you not to enjoy

life God never intended for you and I to wake up every single day stressed out

afraid worried and concerned.

That was never his intention for you and I. And so fear will cause you not to enjoy life.

And today I want to talk to you about something that I believe will impact you

in a great way. It has impacted my life, and I believe it will impact your life as well.

We find out in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, the Apostle Paul wrote this passage

2 Corinthians 10:12

of Scripture under the unction of the Holy Spirit.

He says, for we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.

But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise.

They are not wise. When we first started the church back in July 2011,

we started at Community House Middle School. We were only there for a couple of months.

We were in a stinky, smelly band room. We had no musical equipment.

We had acapella singing, and I had no microphone. But I was recording our messages.

I kid you not, we were still recording them, but we had no speakers, no microphones, etc.

We just got started. Then we moved to Butler High School, met in a in a stinky,

smelly band room at Butler High.

And we just got going, got started and we got to really going and growing.

And well, let me say this before we got to growing. We got to going.

And I was always wondering if people are going to come back.

Will somebody come back the next week? I mean, will they come back?

I mean, I just wonder if they're going to come back the following week. Well, I was invited.

By someone to attend the church on Saturday night. Now, this was back in 2011 or 12.

At the time, Saturday night service was hopping. Y'all remember that when some

churches were having Saturday night services?

And I was invited to attend, so I took my entire family to this church on a Saturday night.

And when I walked into this church on a Saturday night, they was rocking.

I mean, the music was rocking. Remember, we didn't have any music at this time.

The music was rocking, the sound system was great, the ushers were amazing,

the greeters were amazing, everybody was sort of welcoming.

When the minister got up, I mean, he preached a dynamic message,

and when we left, we got the first class treatment.

My kids come from children, and they're doing backflips and all type of stuff.

What a marvelous time everybody had. And I get in the car and I tell Stacey

this and I wrote it down because I want to be exact what I told her.

I said, why would anyone come to our church when they can just go there?

Why would anybody come to our church when they can just go there?

And I had serious thoughts of closing down our brand new church,

which was less than a one-year-old.

I thought, why don't I just go over there? Why don't I just help them?

Why would anybody come to our church when they can just go there?

From the outside, it looked like they had mastered what we were even trying

to do in the beginning stages of our ministry. And I was wrestling with comparison.

I was wrestling with comparison.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

That night I went home and I couldn't sleep. I just, I couldn't figure out why should I continue?

Why keep going? I mean, this guy is blowing and growing, and we are barely making it.

Why should I continue? Why would

anybody come to this church that we're starting, they can just go there?

And I was battling with comparison. I have a wonderful wife.

Stacy is the greatest thing that happened to me.

And she called one of my friends. I didn't know this until a couple years later.

She called one of my really good friends and they

called me that night or the next day and I was trying to

figure out you know he called out of blue and all of a

sudden he said hey what'd y'all do last night I'm like well we went

to this this other church and I had a blast and I'm thinking about closing my

church now I told him that and let's go on over here and man what a great thing

they got going on over here and he began to talk to me about comparison and jealousy.

Comparison and jealousy. Comparison is taking two or more items,

putting them together and looking for inadequacies.

That's what comparison does. You're either going to look at a situation and

you will feel either inferior because you compared yourself to someone else

or what God's called you to do to something else or you're going to feel superior.

You're going to feel better about yourself. But more often than not,

you and I are going to feel inferior.

And I was dealing with comparison.

We look at our lives, compare them to others, and think, I should be further along by now.

How many of you have ever done that? If you want to be honest today,

you look at your and you think, I should be further along by now.

About 10 years ago, right around my birthday, full disclosure,

I used to not be happy on my birthday.

I used to feel like I should be further alone than I am by now,

I should be you know so and so look

how far so and so is and so and so look how far they are and look at me I should

be further alone it wasn't until the Lord set me free about 10 years ago now

I celebrate jump them down we just take the whole week for my birthday now I'm

excited about my birthday look what the Lord has done but at the time I'm comparing.

My pace with someone else's pace, and we say, I should be further along by now.

Comparison will quickly turn into jealousy.

Comparison will quickly turn

into jealousy, and jealousy is more than wanting what someone else has.

Listen to me now, lock in here. Jealousy is more than wanting what someone else has.

Jealousy is the subtle belief that God has not done enough for you.

Jealousy is the subtle belief that God has not done enough for me.

And so when we are jealous, it's an indicator that you are ungrateful and you're unthankful.

When if you're experiencing jealousy, you are should be realizing that there's

an area of your life that you are ungrateful and unthankful.

It could be, man, look at her. She can get in those jeans, and I can't even get in those jeans.

Look at her hair. Her hair is so great, and look at my hair.

It could be any. Look at my sister. My sister seems to have a great life, and I don't.

It could be anything that we begin to compare, and we'll begin to get jealous.

And it's not that we even want what they have. It's the subtle belief that God's

not done enough for you and I.

It's the belief that I wish God would do more for me it appears that he's doing

more for someone else I don't even want they raggedy new car but it looks like

they got a new car and it appears that they got a new car and God where's my new car.

And that's what comparison and jealousy will do.

It's a major indicator of your ungratefulness.

Comparison is dangerous because it blinds you to your own blessings.

It will blind you to your own blessings.

Look what the Lord has done for me. But you won't notice that because you're

comparing yourself with someone else or their progress with your progress.

When you compare, as I said before, you're either going to feel inferior or superior.

And it will cause you to overlook what God is doing in your life because you're

too focused on what he appears to be doing in someone else's life.

Now, I know we're going to get a lot of amens today, but I know this is bouncing off of your heart.

I used to be able to tell you someone else's vision better than I could tell you my vision.

I can look at Pookie and Ray Ray and tell you this is what God's called Pookie

and Ray Ray to do and can't even tell you what God's called me to do.

I would know their vision better than I would even know my vision.

I would understand their goals more than I would even understand my goals.

I would be looking at them more than I'm looking at God trying to figure out,

God, what have you called me to do?

And this is what comparison and jealousy would do. you begin to compete with

someone that doesn't even know you're competing with them.

And they're competing with someone that they don't even realize at all is competing with them.

We're in this comparison competition game, and social media has not helped us

a bit at all with this. It's made it absolutely worse.

That person that looks like they're so happy, they're not.

It's all a lie. It's all a facade. They're not as happy as they're presenting

it. But we begin to compare ourselves among ourselves.

Scripture says that's not wise.

It's not wise to look at someone else's life and compare it to your life as

if they are a lot further along and you think God's done more for them than he's done for you.

You can't compare. Here's one reason you can't compare. You ready for this?

You can't compare because you and I have all started at different places.

You don't know Pookie and Ray Ray's start. The guy that I was comparing to,

in particular, in the beginning story, they started with a handful of dedicated

folks and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

That's how they started. Why would I compare? We started with nothing.

Nothing. We had, by God's grace, someone sowed a seed, $1,200.

I remember one of the biggest seeds at the time into our ministry before we

even had a bank account open.

I had to hold on to the check and go get a bank account open first.

Why am I comparing our start to someone that started with $400,000?

You don't know everybody's start. So you can't compare. You can't compete.

Everybody has a different start. If you want some scripture on that,

remember the parable of the talents.

One guy had five, one guy had two, one guy had one. Totally different starts.

But they continued to be faithful, the first two did, and got the same reward.

But they had different starts.

And so we can't compare ourselves to anybody because somebody's got a different start than I got.

They may have started in luxury.

Maybe you grew up and you didn't have a dad.

Maybe they started with a dad. And statistics will tell you, right?

A father in the home is a great start for a child, an individual.

And that doesn't mean, now, that doesn't mean, Stacey grew up without a father

and she's doing quite well. Don't mean you can't break the odds.

Come on, say amen to that. You can break it. But having a father in the home

is a better start, right?

Then not. And so stop comparing because you don't know where someone started.

And so you have to understand that comparison will cause you to overlook what

God is doing in your life.

Because you become too focused on what appears that he's doing in someone else's life.

Your enemy, Satan himself, loves it when you compare because he can get you

looking sideways. sideways, left and right, and it'll stop you from moving forward.

He can get you looking sideways and stop you from moving forward.

God never called you to compare. He called you to obey.

He called you to be faithful. He never called you to compare. So why do we compare?

Why do we look to the left and to the right and say, look what God's doing in

their life and compare to our life and become sad, disgruntled,

and ultimately believe God's not done enough for me?

He never asked you to run someone else's race.

He gave you your own lane. Your journey is designed for your calling.

Say this, my journey is designed for my calling.

There is grace for your assignment. There is favor for your calling.

There is provision for what God told you to build.

Stop looking at everyone else and look at what God told you to do because there's

a special grace, divine favor, and provision for what God told you to build.

I'm going to say this to you because I don't know if I've ever said it publicly.

I'm going to say it to you.

Sometimes you look around and you think, man, that person's doing really,

really good. Oh, my gosh.

They are making a difference in the earth. And I tend to think sometimes I wonder

if they're going to get well done, good and faithful service.

You think they might, but they might not. They may not.

I only got to be concerned about what I'm going to get. I need to hear the Lord

say at the end of my life, well done, good and faithful servant.

What he said to somebody else is between them and God. But sometimes you're

looking at somebody, man, it looks like they're doing a great job.

Look at them. Oh, it looks like things are going well. They may not even get

well done at the end of the day.

That's deep right there. but you got to look at your look look at what God's

called you to do I have a friend of mine,

and he said that uh he I didn't

plan to tell this story so bear with me he he was on an airplane he was flying

private on an airplane and they saw a beautiful airplane out there part it was

he said it was the most beautiful plane he had ever seen and he said I was sitting

in this this plane that we were in,

and I was looking at that plane, and I was thinking, my goodness,

wouldn't it be nice to fly in that plane?

Look how beautiful it is. He said it had gold on it and everything. I mean, it was great.

Come to find out, the person that owned that plane was a porn, ran a porn business, and.

Now, is he doing well? No. Now, you might think financially he is, but he ain't doing well.

I mean, this man is not going to get well done, good and faithful servant.

And here he said, man, I had to catch myself.

I'm sitting in a plane looking at that plane thinking it would be nice to have that plane.

And then I look at the guy that got the plane, and he's living a terrible life.

And here I am thinking, oh, I wish I had what he has. No, you don't.

No, you don't. You don't you don't want some of the problems that these folks

got that you're comparing yourself to. You don't know what they're going through.

You don't want it. And so you can't compare because it's unwise.

God never asked you to run someone else's race.

There's grace for your assignment. And when you compare yourself to others,

you minimize the work of God in your own life.

You belittle and you minimize what God is doing in your life.

You forget your testimony. You got a powerful testimony.

You forget your testimony. You discount your progress.

You despise the small beginnings that God often uses to birth something great.

God uses small beginnings to birth something extraordinary.

In scripture God will tell you that's too many for me when he tell Gideon he

had 20,000 plus folks he's like listen I need you to trim that thing all the

way down because that's too many for me,

you ain't never seen anywhere in scripture where God said I just need more people,

to get anything done no he uses the small matter of fact do you guys know the

average sized church in America.

The average size church in America, the number is 60 to 65 people.

That's the average. God is telling you, this is my system of how I want to use

in the earth to get things done.

Now, I'm not mad at mega churches. I got a lot. I know a couple of pastors that pastor me.

Not mad at them. But it's interesting that the average size,

and they say 80% of churches are under 100 people.

God has always used something small to do big things in the earth.

You're valuable. You're significant.

God is looking at you. He's planted and invested in you.

I know you feel like nobody knows me and I'm forgotten about,

but God knows you and he puts something on the inside of you and he just wants

you to enjoy the journey that you're on.

Enjoy it because he's got something great for you if you'll just remain faithful.

If you agree, say amen to that.

Zechariah 4.10 in the New Living Translation says, Do not despise these small

beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work began.

Don't despise small beginnings. God is rejoicing to see the work began.

The fastest way, listen to me, the fastest way to kill something special is

to compare it to something else.

The fastest way to kill something special is to compare it to something else.

So today, refuse comparison.

Let's release our faith. Say, I refuse to compare myself with someone else.

Do not compare but celebrate celebrate instead

of comparing celebrate glory to

God I have a I have a couple friends that

are a lot further along than me I love to talk to them they got some in my eyes

some some big things happening you know when they tell me something big I just

shout one guy told me we paid off our house I said glory to God I celebrated

why because I want to pay off my house too. Amen.

Hallelujah. Don't compare. Celebrate.

Celebrate. And if you're the wisest person in your group, you need to get in another group.

Get in another group of people doing greater things than you're doing and celebrate

what they're doing. They'll begin to give you secrets.

They'll begin to share things with you that, oh, that's really good. Ah, I see that.

You just got to get in a room and you got to celebrate instead of,

well, you know, that always happened for you.

See, it happened for you all the time because, you know, this,

that and the third. No, I just celebrated.

I just celebrated. Yeah, that man, that's great. That happened.

That's awesome. Why? Because I want it to happen to me, too. Amen.

Celebrate what God is doing for others without letting it steal your joy.

Don't let it steal your joy celebrate what

he's doing in others stay in your lane because

when you are content because when

you are not content I'm sorry stay in your lane because when you are not content

you will compare when you are not content you will prepare I believe one definition

of the word content means to be thankful when you are unthankful you'll start

comparing your life to someone else's life.

If you keep obeying, what feels small today may become the very thing God uses

to impact generations tomorrow.

All you got to do is keep obeying and stay faithful, and God will use you in this earth.

Galatians 6.4 in the New Living Translation says it this way.

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done.

And you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. Glory to God. Just stay faithful.

Pay close attention to what God's asking you to do. Don't look to the left. Don't look to the right.

And you will get well done, and you won't compare yourself to what someone else is doing.

What God has for you does not need to be compared to or competed for.

Sometimes we think we're competing for the same thing. We're not.

We're not. If as a pastor, it feels like we're all, you know,

competing sometimes for the same folks.

If everybody in Charlotte and the surrounding cities decided to come to church

on the same day, we don't have enough church facility to house them.

We're not competing for the same folks. If everybody said, I'm coming to church,

we could not fit everybody in church buildings on that Sunday.

There's still work to be done. There's still churches that need to start.

There's still growth that needs to take place. Let's stop comparing.

Where have you been comparing yourself to someone else?

Where have you been comparing yourself to someone else?

Watch this in Genesis chapter 4. And I'm going to read through verses 1 through 8.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Genesis 4, 1 through 8, New Living Translation.

Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant.

And when she gave birth to Cain, she said, with the Lord's help, I have produced a man.

Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd while Cain cultivated the ground.

I want to pause here for a second, I'm going to give you a little side note.

This is what I believe, the King James Version, and you do your own little research,

but this is what I believe, fun fact, I can't prove it, but you can't prove me wrong, all right?

So, fun fact, I believe that Cain and Abel were twins.

I believe they were twins. If you read in the King James Version,

it says that she conceived once and bore twice.

She conceived once and bore twice. I believe Cain and Abel were twins,

but you can't prove me wrong, but that's what I believe.

And so it says here they had sexual relations, right?

She gave birth to Cain, and then later, I believe in a few minutes later,

she gave birth to Abel. Abel became a shepherd.

Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for harvest, in verse 3,

Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. So he just gathered

whatever was remaining.

Whatever I got left over, I'm going to gather that. I'm going to present it

to the Lord. But look at verse 4. Abel also brought a gift, but what did he bring?

The best portions of the firstborn. He bought the best and the first.

To the Lord. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, verse 5, but he did not accept Cain and his gift.

This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

Why are you so angry, the Lord asked Cain. Why do you look so dejected?

You will be accepted if you do what is right, but if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.

Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must do it and be its master.

One day Cain suggested to his brother, let's go out into the fields.

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.

Have you allowed someone else's success to make you angry at them and at God?

I want you to consider this question. Have you allowed someone else's success

make you angry at them and at God.

Ask God to show you where comparison has become jealousy in your life.

Ask him to reveal any place in you where you resent someone he's blessed.

Ask him to expose every hidden insecurity that makes you feel threatened by others.

Ask him to deliver you from the need to compare your journey to anyone else's.

Ask him to heal the part of you that feels like you are behind.

Healing begins when you pray for the person you once envied.

Healing begins when you pray for the person you once envied.

Watch this. if God showed you their blessing it may not be to provoke jealousy

it may be to strengthen your faith,

if he showed you something it may not have been to provoke your jealousy it's

to show you well if he did it for them he can do it for me say amen to that,

if he did it for them he can he can do it for me,

maybe it's not to provoke jealousy,

maybe it's to provoke God is able and he can do it,

hallelujah.

I feel led to share this with you, but here I am, I told you,

wanting to close down our ministry.

Because I went to another ministry and they was blowing and growing.

And here I am thinking, what are we doing?

Why would anybody come to our church when they could just go over there?

And in 2019, a prophetic word came to us from a friend of mine.

He stood in our church and essentially this is what he said he said God is going

to send people to your ministry.

That's going to give they're going to support they're going to give financially

5, 10, 20 and 100 he said receive them call them blessed he said the Lord will

send people to your ministry that will support and give thousands,

he said receive them call them blessed and the

Lord will send people to your ministry that will give tens of thousands

receive it call it and bless

he said then the Lord will send people to your

ministry that will give hundreds of thousands he

said receive it and call them bless he said then if you're faithful and if you

will continue to obey God he'll send people that will send millions at a time

and the word was to get big things done quickly for me, saith the Lord. That was the word.

At the time, you know, we were growing and going and this past week,

the Lord reminded me of that prophecy.

I read that prophecy pretty often, but it reminded me of it.

God has fulfilled that.

Where people have been five, tens, twenties, hundreds, thousands,

tens of thousands, we're into the hundreds of thousands now,

praise God, and the next step will be the millions. Amen. Say amen to that.

What if I quit?

He had all that in store for our ministry. What if I said, you know what?

Why would anybody come to our church when we can just go to that church?

What if you quit? God says, I've got this plan.

But if you quit in the early stages, I'm never going to be able to fulfill the plan.

If you start comparing and belittling and despising what I have for you,

I will never be able to do what I've planned for you.

This is deep today because I want

you to look at blessings that are happening for other people to strengthen your

faith when I hear of somebody receiving something big and large my first tendency

used to be oh that's just because your daddy's name is this come on somebody,

You know, that's just because I know it's because you got this or that. I don't do that anymore.

I say, praise God, I'm next.

If God can do it for them, he can do it for me.

I'm next, and I'm not going to compare it. Thank you, Lord, for showing me that

you did it for a human being. And if you did it for that human, I'm a human.

You can do it for me too. Say amen to that.

Romans chapter 12, verse 15 says it this way. rejoice with those who rejoice

Romans 12:15

and weep with those who reek.

So we're to rejoice when other people are rejoicing and we're to weep when people are weeping.

And so can I ask you a difficult, hard question this afternoon?

When somebody around you gets blessed, promoted, recognized,

favored, healed married or pregnant do you really rejoice or do you just act like you do.

This is an indicator of our heart. Do we really rejoice or do we just act like we do?

And then there are some people, and you know this, that you can't even tell

what God's done in your life.

There are certain people I can't even tell because they will begin to hate me.

And so you can't even tell. I don't want to be one of those people.

I want people to tell me what God's doing in their life so that I can rejoice

with them, so that I can celebrate with them and be glad and what they don't

know, in the back of my mind, I'm saying if God did it for you, he can do it for me too.

If he worked it out for you, he can work it out for me too. If he did it before,

he can do it again. Say amen to that.

Ask the Lord to teach you how to celebrate others with sincerity.

How to celebrate others with sincerity. We're talking about hindrances to enjoying the journey.

And this comparison and jealousy is a major hindrance that I hear,

that I've experienced, that I've talked to people. They're not enjoying right

where God has them because they're comparing themselves to someone else.

Now, I want to talk to someone today who's been watching other people step into

things that you've been praying for.

And if you're honest it's been hard on your heart if comparison has stolen your joy.

If someone else's blessings has made you question your own matter of fact just

close your eyes if someone else's blessings have made you question your own,

if frustration insecurity or silent resentment has been weighing on you.

You don't have to carry it anymore.

This is not a moment of shame. This is a moment of healing.

This is a moment where God wants to restore your joy and help you trust his timing again.

If that's you and you're saying, Pastor, I need God to heal my heart today.

I want you to be honest with me. And I want you to just lift up your hands right where you are.

If that's you, I see hands up all over, all over. My hand is up too,

right, right where we are.

Put your hand down. I believe the Lord is healing hearts right now.

Receive healing in Jesus name. I speak healing of the broken heartedness.

The expectation that we thought things were happening at a certain time or by

a certain period that has hurt us, broken our heart.

I speak healing over your heart in Jesus' name.

He's lifting heaviness right now.

The Lord is breaking comparison right now. Receive it right now.

He's breaking comparison right now.

Let me remind you that you are not forgotten.

You are not behind.

Rose, I hear the Lord saying you're not too old. Stop saying that. You're not too old.

You're just getting started.

You are not overlooked. Overlooked.

God has not changed his mind about you. What he promised you is still yours.

What he spoke over your life is still yours.

Lift up your hands right where you're seated. Just lift up your hands. Receive his healing.

Receive his peace. receive his joy,

right now. God is healing broken hearts right now.

Expectations. He's giving you fresh expectation.

You're holding on. I hear the Lord saying you're holding on the old expectations.

You're holding on the things that God said, hey, you came up with that.

I didn't come up with that. You're holding on to it. The Lord says, release it. Let it go.

Let it go and receive new expectations from me.

Don't look to your left. Don't look to your right. Look to me.

Look to me, said the Lord.

I'll give you fresh new expectations.

Don't compare. Celebrate where I have you.

Rejoice where you are right now because the best is yet to come.

The best is yet to come. The best.

It's going to be fresh. It's going to be original. It's going to be new.

It's going to be tailor-made, suitable for you, cultivated for you.

I've made it just for you.

If you'll obey, remain faithful. Don't look to your neighbor.

Stop looking to your neighbor. Stop competing with them unknowingly.

Competing with your neighbor, stop.

The Lord says, I got something just for you. Just for you.

Enjoy, enjoy where you are right

now, because I've got something specifically for you, saith the Lord.

If you receive that, stand to your feet.

This is how you receive true life.