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Question: As Christians, are we not to feel any pride or sense of accomplishment in a job well done, giving due credit to God for all his help? With no feeling or pride at all our present life appears quite bleak and empty. Is this the way God wants us to feel?
Answer: Webster's dictionary says pride is "inordinate self-esteem; conceit; proud or disdainful behavior or treatment; ostentatious display." Charles Finney defined pride as a "disposition to exalt self, to get above others, to hide our defects and to pass for more than we are." "There was one who thought himself above me, and he was, until he had that thought," quipped Elbert Hubbard.
Among the things God hates is a proud look, which is related to arrogance and is labeled sin. Such feelings and actions of pride are an abomination to the Lord, shameful and cause contention. Condemnation of such pride is everywhere evident in Scripture: 1 Samuel 12:3; Proverbs 6:17, 18:13; 21:4; 16:5; and 12:10. However, I would think there is a reasonable and justifiable self-respect which is honoring to the Lord. The self that is yielded to God and takes its pleasure from pleasing Him. With such we cannot help but feel that God is pleased.
Certainly there is some sense of pleasure and joy from doing the will of God. When we do what we do "not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with goodwill, as to the Lord, and not to men" (Eph. 6:6-7). There is some sense of accomplishment before the Lord. The deepest delight of God's child is to hear Him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matt 25:21). The desire to hear His well done is certainly not sinful.
Humility, therefore, does not mean we speak disparagingly of ourselves, or deny the gifts and abilities God has given us. It is not taking a place lower than what befits, but simply to take our rightful place before God. Romans 12:3, "For I say through the grace given unto me, to every person who is among you, not to think more highly than he ought to think: but think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith." Sober thinking about ourselves (who does that anymore?) is the acknowledgement that we have nothing that we have not received, and that all is of grace. We can take no real credit for what we have only been given in the first place. We are only creatures before our Creator, children before our heavenly Father.
To continually talk about our own ability and weakness is not only false humility but an insult to our risen Lord. Remember the apostle Paul did not live with a defeating attitude about his own deficiencies although he recognized them. He boldly said, "I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). So, for some, this is a tricky spot, with the danger of falling away to both sides. It is sinful to trust in our own abilities as well as sin to be defeated by our lack of natural talents. Remember also that God uses the weak to confound the mighty. The King James reads "For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 Cor. 4:7)
We should not be proud, but have gratitude! To cultivate gratitude, keep utterly humble before God, but live by the faith that believes God's promise to enable you to do anything that He calls you to do.
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Pastor Taylor Camerer of Great Island Presbyterian Church, Lock Haven.