Our Attitude: To Success
But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6
Christians are to be a humble people: lacking selfishness and filled with humility. We recognize the dangers of pride, as God resists those who are filled with it. If we want to remain in God’s favour, being filled with his grace, we need to be humble. So when we perform something well and obtain some sort of success let’s not get wrapped up in ourselves and in how good we are.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.
Philippians 2:3
Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18
In these two passages above, we see the terms “conceit” and “haughty”, meaning excessive pride and arrogantly superior respectively. This helps us better define where the error lies - it is found in too much pride.
It is natural to be filled with joy and to enjoy the successes we accomplish. It is natural to feel a sense of pride when we or someone close to us achieves a goal. It is good to feel pride in being a Christian, following a magnificent Saviour. But we need to make sure the pride is not excessive and that the pride is not puffing ourselves up to a point where we are number one - where we edge out our Almighty God who should always sit at our highest point of attention.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:10
Even when we accomplish something and feel a sense of joy and pride, let’s make sure it is properly founded. God has blessed us with the gifts and talents that allow us to succeed. We ought to give thanks to Him and seek to be lifted up not by our own doing, but by God. And He will lift us up if we have the proper attitude.
-- John Thrower Jr.