Brand New

How can I be poor but wealthy at the same time?  

It all depends on who I compare myself with.  Comparing myself to my neighbors in Buckhead of Atlanta, Georgia I would be considered to be in the lower class.  When I compare myself to the world I find that I’m actually in the upper class…

But even this “upper class” percentage seems to let me down!!  

Why is it that I have all these “blessings” but still view them as inadequate?  Should I just count my blessings and see how easy I have it compared to others?  I call these types of techniques “band-aid on a gaping wound”.  

We are not designed to compare ourselves with others

The questions and doubts of God’s sovereignty (all knowing power and control over everything) are natural.  We are imperfect people who are not capable of always keeping the faith or even remembering how blessed we really are.  The bible says that we all “like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one- to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6) and that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (Romans 3:10-11).  How then are we blessed?  How will we ever get into heaven?

There is absolutely no band-aid that can cover our wounds.  

These wounds cut deep and without a life saving act we will all surely bleed out and die.  Recognition is the first and most necessary step in asking for Jesus to preform surgery.  We are told to “look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)  So what does this mean to us on the practical day-to-day grind???

Let us look vertically before we look horizontally.

Seeing what God did for us on the cross (not only saving us from sin but giving us “every spiritual blessing” making us holy and blameless) will allow our hearts to turn and live for him.  Living life in relationship with Jesus gives us a new life; experiencing God personally as in His original design.  So here is to “setting our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2) When I look first to God I find that everything I need I already have been given in Christ Jesus, and then the self comparison to others no longer seems as important.