Pride and Boasting
Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving. The heart of thanksgiving is to recognize that what we have did not come by our hand alone. The opposite of thanksgiving is pride and boasting. Pride always precedes boasting. We say boastful things because first, pride was in our heart. However, it is important to remember that we can flip boasting upside down and say self-deprecating things because we want to hear someone else boast for us and about us. Either way, it is still boasting! The irony is that we boast about things that matter very little to God. (They matter to God only as far as they bring glory to God.) So we boast about our GPA, our athletic skill, our rank, our accomplishments, who we know, where we have been, or what we have done.
However, we talk very little about the important things that we possess as Christians—things that did not come by our own hand—our righteousness, our sanctification and our redemption. Maybe we don’t talk about them because we cannot boast in them? Could it be that we would rather boast in ourselves than in the Lord?
