Luke 14:11

Luke 14:11 – For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

It is in our human nature to try and put ourselves above others. We want to not only do our best, but we want to be the best. This is not all bad, but when our sole purpose is lifting ourselves up it becomes a problem. We often do this at the expense of others and end up trying to make them look bad, just so we can look good. Don’t get me wrong, we should try to excel and do our best in all we do, but as we do we should be helping others do the same. When we start to tear others down in our pursuit for success it becomes a problem.

We also need to watch our words. When we are good at something it is natural to want to let everyone know. Too often this comes in the form of bragging and in doing so we attempt to exalt ourselves. You can see this passage of scripture true in this situation. There is always going to be someone that is better than you at something. In bragging we make ourselves look like the best, then when that person comes along and does better we find ourselves humbled and humiliated in front of those we were just bragging too.

Instead, we ought to be confident, but humble. Don’t get this confused with pride. Proverbs tells us that pride comes before destruction, and we don’t want that. Confidence and pride are two different things. Sometimes confidence can lead to pride, but it doesn’t start out that way. Confidence is knowing you can do something well; pride is thinking you can do something better than everyone else. We need to be careful to not let our confidence turn into pride. Instead, take the road of humility, knowing there are some better than you, and let your actions speak for themselves.