My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. —Psalm 131:1
What did David mean when he wrote these words? If he is telling the truth, we are seeing a quality of humility that is very rare. What a contrast to the spirit of today! We are living in an age in which we must catch the eye of other people. The key to success today has mainly to do with pride and self-esteem.
But the key to success in the world is the way of disaster in the things of the Spirit. What is the mother of all battles? Pride. There are many Christians today whose real problem is their pride. They want to be greater than others. This is in contrast to what Jesus said to His disciples: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt. 23:11-12).
Our pride will cause us to do stupid things. It will delay us coming to terms with the most important thing in the world: our relationship with God Himself. Pride keeps a person from confessing Christ openly, from going out on the streets to witness.
Jesus bore the sin of our pride at Calvary. He knew humiliation. He was naked on the cross. When we see all that the Son of God went through, we must know that there was no other way whereby we could be saved. It is not by our good works or joining a church. It is not by getting rid of a habit, however bad it is.
Something will happen to us when we resign from the rat race and realize that the only thing that matters is for God to have us all to Himself. We will get to know Him, and we will be amazed.
Remember, the key to success in the world is the way of disaster in the things of the Spirit. (See Galatians 5:17.)
Excerpted from Higher Ground (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1995).
