Spiritual pride is always toxic to the spirit, yet all too easy to cloak.
It’s exacerbated by a segment of the Christian world which applauds and encourages it.
Especially in the world of social media where the number of followers, rankings, and scores are exalted and sought after.
We humans have an inimitable way of glorifying the paintbrush when we appreciate a painting.
But understanding WHO created the painting helps one break loose of such delusions.
If you are gifted and God is using you, you are more susceptible to spiritual pride than others. But keeping things in perspective is the antidote. Specifically,
1. Understanding that you’re merely a paintbrush in the hands of the Painter.
2. As a paintbrush, you don’t deserve the glory that’s only due to the Painter.
3. You are dispensable.
Sometimes a thorn in the flesh helps us to recognize this.
In this connection, the only “klout” that matters is klout with God.
Related:
The Dangers of God’s Favor: Part I
A timely warning. Especially for those of us who already know we have issues with pride. Antidote — more time with the Lord, and deep consideration of truths like what Rita expressed — we are all brothers.
Regarding this dispensable/indispensable thing…I think the greatest revelation for me in quite a number of years has been…through reading Pagan Christianity I might add…the huge and marvelous reality that in the utmost simplicity…we are all priests and kings in this Kingdom of God. For me that leveled the playing field entirely. Done deal. Never again to be intimidated by title or position, never again to address a child in a gathering without acknowledging that they are also a vessel and a channel for the Holy Spirit…that anyone can have the needed word for a situation regardless of training or experience. That everyone carries the responsibility for being available to the Lord on behalf of others. It is such a relief and such a hedge against spiritual pride.
The Lord just recently showed me that spiritual pride, or pride in general, was one of the main reasons we as Christians tend to judge others. Maybe I should be speaking for myself here, but we, as the ‘body of Christ’, tend to like having our egos stroked for what we do or not do. He gave me the analogy that as the body we can’t judge the another part of it for not doing what we think that it should be doing. ie, the hand can’t judge the eye for not looking what the hand is doing because the eye might be directed by the head to look in another direction all while the hand is doing what it was told to do by the very same head. I thank the Lord for you Frank for allowing me to see the picture of the local church as the body of Christ even though I had read the same scriptures you used to illustrate that point and never clearly saw the picture you were describing.
This reminds me that I need to stay connected to the Source of all that is good – Christ Himself. There is a noticable difference when something comes out from our own efforts versus Christ inspiring us to express Him.
Frank thank you for the post. Sometimes it literally takes the hard truth to make people listen. I consistently struggle with praising God for the great gifts He gave me. Just because I do not see Him doesn’t mean He isn’t there, working through me.
Thank you for the reminder.
Frank, I almost missed your article this morning. June 12 falls below June 11 on the front page.
Have a good day!
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I commented to a woman in a music ministry about how nice her voice was. She waxed on and on about how God had blessed her, blah, blah, blah. Instead of glorigying the giver of gifts it came across as very arrogant. I thought about it and what I was doing was giving her a simple gift of a compliment. All I needed back was a simple thank you. But, at least she did have something to be prideful about. I feel pride creeping into my thoughts for absolutely no good reason. I measure myself to others or deem myself better. I will probably be fighting this thorn all my life.
Thank you for your comment.
Frank, I agree with you, absolutely. The first thing that entered my thoughts is that pride is pride, called spiritual or other. Pride is always the root of human problems. It is the bitter waters of resentment, self-focus, and the old adamic nature. You put it mildly in my opinion, though I am most likely not as familiar with the media as you. Perhaps it could be that anyone who is prideful knows not the greatness of Christ. A mere glimpse of the infinite vastness of His divine fullness should wipe pride right off the table instantly, I would think. We have nothing and can do nothing, but it only in Christ and by Christ and through Christ that we have what is in Him, and we can do nothing without Him. Nothing means exactly that, nothing. Also we can know nothing, less Father reveals Christ to us and in us. Pride is a symptom of not knowing or not seeing the greatness of Christ. In other words, it is a symptom of not knowing the Person Jesus Christ. Oh, about that thorn, yes, that thorn is there for those who Father uses in a way that is in the public eye. The thorn is there but as it is written, His grace is sufficient. And are we not humbled by the tremendous magnitude of His grace?
it’s good to be reminded from time to time to humble ourselves and seek rather God’s blessing than man’s applause, welcome, and appreciation. Thanks for the reminder…
Concerning the “dispensable” or “indispensable”, I think that each member of the Body of Christ is INDISPENSABLE. In the sense of the message of this article, you could say that the Lord can safely put you aside and His work will go on, but you cannot say that you’re expendable, unnecessary, unessential, unimportant, or estraneous (see the synonyms to “dispensable”). Am I right?
In the specific context of which I’m writing, we are dispensable — meaning replaceable. God doesn’t need any individual — no matter how gifted they are — to do His work. Paul said so much in 1 Cor. 9:27. If we don’t understand this, pride can easily lodge into our hearts. The meglamaniacs and egomanicas I’ve known (Christians with lots of influence) wrongly thought they were indispensable to God. They didn’t understand that they were but one paintbrush among many.
Great analogy, Frank – the paintbrush and the Painter. (P.S. – Was just wondering whether you meant ‘dispensable’ in point 3 rather than ‘indispensable’?).
Keep them coming brother.
Typo. Fixed. Thanks to Rita also who spotted that one.
It’s so easy to feel like we hold the power to creating good art. The feeling increases with our skills. But art, in this case, is no different than money. It belongs to God. We simply give back to acknowledge that He is God.