Glory and pride. One is God’s and the other comes before the fall. What are we to do with our successes and achievements? Is self-loathing the answer?

Years ago I was approached by a woman after I had led worship (I think) and she praised the work I had done. I was very bad at accepting compliments and must have looked like Neo from the Matrix films ducking and dodging her attempts to pat me on the back. Eventually, in a fit of frustration she looked at me sternly and sniped, “Just say ‘thank you’ and take the compliment!” That was rather embarrassing.

I’ve since learned to receive praise much more graciously.

But how do we keep from getting a fat head in circumstances like this? Because this is basically what happened to the nation of Israel throughout the books of the Kings; they mistook the wind of God in their sails as their own expert seamanship and got the fat head. Then God took away His help and Israel fell and fell and eventually end up in captivity. You don’t want to end up in captivity do you??

The good news is that I don’t think it’s all that hard to navigate this issue. Pride is something I think we can take in our work and even in our outcomes, so long as we are sure this pride is relative to ourselves and not others. If we get to the point where we are better than person X or Y then there is a problem! But we we are enjoying meeting our own standards or setting a personal best for output or outcome, then I think we can do that safely. But it’s still important to recognize that we are working as unto the Lord by stewarding the gifts and talents He has given us. Glory is even simpler. Don’t take it. Re-direct it to the Lord. Someone want to lavish praise on you? Receive it graciously, but say something like, “All glory to God!” or, “Praise the Lord for using me.” Now, I’m not advocating for false humility! If you cannot say these things sincerely and give God His due glory and praise, there’s a deeper issue there that you need to seek the Lord about!

In summary: all glory is God’s, but you can take pride in your work… so long as you do it with humility.