Bible Reading: Galatians 5:26
Competition – the drive to win, to do better than anyone else – can add excitement and energy to our sports and other contests of the body and mind.
Even “internal” competition – the desire to better our own previous best can encourage and motivate us to stretch ourselves to work hard and excel.
However, sometimes our victories or the competition that drives us causes us to begin thinking that we are better than we truly are. Sometimes competition causes us to become jealous of the success of another person or wish that we had the success that belongs to them. Sometimes competition pushes us into criticizing other people’s abilities or ridiculing them or provoking them to anger in an attempt to make ourselves feel better about our lesser abilities. When any of those things happen, competition stops being motivation and becomes sin.
We need to heed Paul’s waring in Galatians 5:25, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” We need to keep competition in balance and remember to “Do everything in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14), treating other competitors with the same respect with which we want to be treated.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:3 & 4
Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to keep my competitive desires in balance. Remind me that people should come before my own pride. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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