The Crooked Stick

“Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?” Haggai 2:3

As the work on the temple continued, the Lord asked a question that revealed the hearts of the older people as they watched the temple being restored. Scripture doesn’t say that these people were grumbling and whispering about how much grander the original temple was. Since this was 70 years later no doubt these people had experienced Solomon’s temple as young children or young adults. They knew exactly the difference between ‘what was…and what is.’ But the Lord read their hearts and knew they longed for grander surroundings. Their comparison between the ‘good of what was and the minimal of what is’ echoes our own disappointments.

I am a member of our Prayer Team at church which has been meeting via Zoom during the pandemic each Thursday to lift prayers for our people, missionaries, community and our nation. Our pastor who leads us shares the prayer requests and calls on people to lift those prayers. In the beginning I would always disconnect at the end feeling inadequate. The prayers of those warriors were so beautiful and came from the overflow of their hearts for God. I have told them before that I feel like I am eavesdropping on their holy ground. I must admit that like the older people in our passage, I compared my prayers to their prayers. I found myself longing for a future time when my prayers would be fueled by my love for God. As time when on the Lord said to me the same thing, He said to them, ‘Is this…as nothing?’ ‘Comparison is a trap, and it takes courage and wisdom to avoid it…it can feel like nothing if I choose to compare. Using someone else’s gifts, callings, [circumstances] is like using a crooked measuring stick. If I use those things to compare, then my flesh wants to rise up and compete…the real danger of comparing is missing the real glory.’ Take Courage, Jennifer Rothschild, p. 95-96.

Whew! She is reading my weaknesses! When God called me to be on that Prayer Team, He equipped me to be myself in Him. My prayers are as unique as my personality and that is how He wants us to be…uniquely called…divinely equipped…obediently accessible. To compare my prayers to others is to fall into the trap set by Satan…I must keep this truth before me in all I do.

I’m wondering today, what comparison bait pulls you into the trap? What former set of circumstances do you long for as you stare at your current situation? We all have the Lord’s standard of measurement written in 66 chapters of the Bible. God will always bring greater glory out of former things. He is a God who blesses cumulatively and progressively when we trust Him to whatever He calls us. Whenever God does a new thing in our lives we must avoid longing for the last thing.