<![CDATA[Harvest Fellowship Church - Pastor\'s Blog]]>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 12:01:18 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Apples & Oranges Don't Compare]]>Tue, 11 Feb 2014 01:53:54 GMThttps://www.hfchurch.com/pastors-blog/apples-oranges-dont-compare
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When you play the comparison game you are like the two cows that saw the milk truck go by with a sign, "Pasteurized, homogenized and Vitamin A added." One cow said to the other, "Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn't it?"

Comparing yourself to someone else is like comparing apples to oranges. It doesn't compare, and Scripture tells us it's not wise.

“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.” (2 Corinthians 10:12)

The curse of comparison is it produces inferiority or superiority. Another way of saying it is that it produces insecurity or pride. When you meet someone, you are always measuring yourself. Am I better than or worst than them? Comparison also produces anger towards God. Instead of rejoicing with someone because they are blessed. Comparison causes us to ask the question, "Why are they blessed, and I'm not?" Comparison opens the door to satan in our lives. 

"Comparison is the death of joy." Mark Twain

The cause of comparison is lack of acceptance. We must remember that no one has the whole package. We need each other. The other causes of comparison are lack of identity and covetousness. Covetousness is saying, "I want their life because I don't like mine. I want their life, their spouse, their house, their car, their business, their income, etc." Covetousness is ingratitude at the highest level with a fist in the face of God.

The cure of comparison is to glorify God, be thankful and renew your mind. Glorify means to magnify - make God bigger. Thankfulness is having an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude = Grace & Attitude. Thank God who you are; what you are; and where you are! We renew our minds by setting our them on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:2)

God will help you be all that you can be, but He will never help you be someone else.

When you focus your attention on who you aren't by comparing yourself with someone else, you lose sight of who you need to become.

Don't judge your behind-the-scenes by someone else's highlight reel. You are YOUnique! BE YOU…THERE IS NO COMPARISON!
]]><![CDATA[Cotton Candy Contentment]]>Sat, 01 Feb 2014 02:48:40 GMThttps://www.hfchurch.com/pastors-blog/cotton-candy-contentment
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I am not very good at contentment. I wrestle with this every day. Maybe it’s the way I’m wired, maybe it’s my experiences, for sure it’s my fallen nature, but I struggle with contentment.

Our culture's contentment is like Cotton Candy. It might taste good, but it’s fleeting. You can’t build your life on it. You can’t eat too much of it, or it will make you sick.

You get a new car, and it smells good for a while, then you get the first door ding, the first spill, the first payment, and you no longer have that rush of happiness when you see it. (Cotton Candy)

You meet this amazing person, and for a while you can’t sleep, work or do anything without thinking about this perfect human being that God has given you. It's not long before you realize they have some quirks, they do some things that irritate you, and they have bad breath. The feelings of euphoria you felt for the first week have left, reality has set in, and the real work of love begins. (Cotton Candy)

You go to a church and the music grabs a hold of your soul. You're amazed at how brilliant and relevant the person is who is giving the message. You keep coming to church, and the music loses it’s emotional edge. There is a song that the worship team does too often, and it’s getting on your nerves. The guy who is giving the messages tells the same joke too often and is a little long winded at times. You realize he is not as brilliant and relevant as you thought. You have to decide that your belief in God is deeper than a feeling, and the real work of faith begins. (Cotton Candy)

What will make you happy? If you have an answer to that question, you will never be content.

“One of the Enemy’s most effective strategies is to get you to focus on what you don’t have, what you used to have, or what someone else has that you wish you had. He does this to keep you from looking around and asking, “God, what can You do through what I have?” Pastor Steven Furtick

11 "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through Him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV)

“Real contentment does not come from more money, material things, the perfect spouse, or the right circumstances. All of these things are Cotton Candy Contentment. Real contentment comes from a rich relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
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