Humility

A daily email devotional I get has me thinking about pride this morning. The issue of pride dovetails well with the issue of motives we talked about at Cory Metzgers bible study in Topeka on Saturday morning (see previous post).

If you're anything like me, you struggle with pride - with esteeming yourself more highly than you ought. It's sad, often even spiritual gifts can make us proud. Satan loves to whisper in our ear about how "great of a deed" that was. He loves it when, even in our minds, we cease to give glory to God.

Here's some practical advice I read about keeping the proper perspective: "First of all, just acknowledge that you're a creature of God. Everything you possess is a gift from God, whether it's talent or time or treasure. It's all a gift from God. And you know, He can take it all away from you any moment with a car crash or a heart attack or any number of things."

Who are we, merely creatures of clay, born in sin, limited physically and mentally, to have self-pride in anything? Any positive trait that we have is a gift from God. He is the all-powerful One who created us, and we are less than a termite compared to Him. While I can do all things through Christ, I try to keep a termite perspective concerning my human nature. I am regularly reminded of Romans 8:7-8: "For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God" (NLT).How many of you were slightly grossed out at the picture of the termite? That's how we deserve to be viewed by God, but somehow, in His divinity, He loves us unconditionally.