Have you heard people debating about the GOAT? 

 And no, they are not talking about the animal.  They’re discussing the ‘Greatest Of All Time.’ Michael Jordan or Lebron James? Payton Manning or Tom Brady? Elvis or the Beatles? It can be fun to argue different points of view. But do you know what’s really annoying? It’s when people claim to be the ‘GOAT’ themselves. That takes just a little too much pride if you ask me.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his great book Mere Christianity, “There is one vice of which no man in the world is free which everyone loathes when they see it in someone else…The vice I’m talking of is pride or self-conceit, and the virtue opposite to it in Christian morals is called humility. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride.” 

Now there is healthy pride. We take pride in our work. Maybe you take pride in your yard after mowing. C.S. Lewis is commenting on a different pride, which is ultimately self-reliance versus God-reliance.

Self-reliance takes glory for self rather than giving glory to God. It is pridefully desiring to sit on the throne of your life instead of acknowledging that the throne was meant for God.

One of my favorite Bible stories on pride is found in the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar, a very prideful man, has a dream that needs interpreting. Sure enough, the servant Daniel is gifted with the ability to understand the dream. With great trepidation, Daniel shares with the king a very sobering message. In a nutshell, the dream shows that although the king has become very powerful he would lose that power and live outdoors like an animal, eating the grass of the field. He went on to say that these things will take place for seven periods (or years) of time until he realizes that God is the Most High God. Then the king and his kingdom will be restored.

Sure enough, the dream is fulfilled, and Nebuchadnezzar is humbled for seven years. But then his sanity returns, and he begins honoring the Lord. And not only that…the Bible tells us that ‘surpassing greatness was added to Nebuchadnezzar! 

Now, Nebuchadnezzar never claimed to be the GOAT and there is nothing wrong with being great at something, for doing our best and experiencing success. We become sinful when we start believing we achieved that success on our own. Look at the king’s change of heart. “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just; and He is able to humble those who walk in pride”  (Daniel 4:37).

Is there an area where you are struggling with pride? The question is, will you follow Nebuchadnezzar’s example or will you follow the example of Jesus? You see, Jesus “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). 

While most of us will not be called to physically die as Jesus did, we are all called to ‘die’ to ourselves and to grow in humility. 

Put Jesus first and ensure God receives the glory in your life. Then you will have achieved the greatest success of all time.

What will your answer be?

Taken from a sermon by Bryant Wright, Founder, RFTH