Pride, The Glory Stealer...

Pride, The Glory Stealer...

Illus. From the book a life beyond amazing, by David Jeremiah.

In Detroit in the 1930s, three young men boarded a bus and attempted to pick a fight with a passenger sitting alone in the back. They threw one insult after another, but the man said nothing in response. Eventually the bus came to the man’s stop. He stood, pull the business card from his pocket, and handed it to one of the men before stepping off the bus and going on his way. It read: Joe Louis, boxer.

The three young man had tried to pick a fight with the future heavyweight boxing champion of the world, a title Joe Louis held from 1937 to 1949. Joe could’ve easily given those boys the fight of their lives if he had chosen too and no one would have blamed him.

Proverbs 16:18,19 NKJ

Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,

Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

MSG says: First pride, then the crash—

    the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

Illus. from “a life beyond amazing”

Muhammad Ali once joked, “at home I’m a nice guy but I don’t want the world to know that I’m a nice guy. Humble people, I found don’t get very far in life or in the ring.”

There’s nothing wrong with being recognized for accomplishments, in fact being recognized is kind a nice. But it’s when the recognition becomes the motive for our actions, that’s when the downfall or Downward spiral starts.

The self focus of pride, steals glory from God while simultaneously stealing our joy as well. When praise and attention is required for everything we do, our happiness becomes completely dependent on other people noticing and praising us. And when that doesn’t happen bitterness and anger begins to creep in.

Maybe you’ve heard these words before or even thought them before, “I been busting my rear at this job for far to long and nobody even notices” maybe I’ll just act like so and so and do as little as possible, until they treat me with some respect!

Acting like a slothful person, Is not what we are called to do! We have been called to be salt in all circumstances.

The opposite of being prideful, is humility. The Humble persons happiness does not depend on whether others notice their efforts or not. They’re secure in who they are.

Their happiness doesn’t depend on what others think. Humility removes the anxiety of the constant need to strive for greater recognition, position, and power.

God calls us to shine wherever we are!

God calls us to give our best,

at what ever it is we do,

at the time we do it,

the whole time we are doing it, as unto to Him!

When we do what God calls us to do, He receives the glory and praise, rather than us.

Never think someone is not watching or noticing what your doing. Someone, is always watching. God is always watching and keeping track of what’s going on! And Gods way of reward is so far beyond the comprehension of mans way of reward!

Matthew 5:13-16 NKJ

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Ronald Reagan once said, “ there’s nothing you can’t accomplish, if you don’t care who gets the credit!” I would go one further, “What can be accomplished is limitless, as long as God receives the glory and the credit!”

Illus. By sermon central

A story is told of a turtle that wanted to spend the winter in Florida, but he knew he could never walk that far. He convinced a couple of geese to help him, each taking one end of a piece of rope, while he clamped his vise-like jaws in the center.

The flight went fine until someone on the ground looked up in admiration and asked, "Who in the world thought of that?"

Unable to resist the chance to take credit, the turtle opened his mouth to shout, "I did--"

The greatest example of humility that we have to go by, is the example that Jesus gave us.

The first image we have of Jesus is as a tiny baby being born in a barn, surrounded not by paparazzi, but by the animals in that barn. The image announces His birth in humility, lowliness and vulnerability.