Our Greatest Test

Success can be our greatest test. Why? It can produce pride or the feeling that we have done this on our own. We no longer see success as simply pleasing God with our lives, but we believe we had the major part in our own success.

Moses cautioned the Israelites against this tendency to take the credit for their success. He said they would become proud and forget God: “For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 8:12-14).

C.S. Lewis said it pretty well when he talked about pride and competition. “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone. Pride is competitive by its very nature: that is why it goes on and on.”