Caution: Our Ego Will Try to Act Spiritual

 By A. W. Tozer

 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
                                                               ---  Ephesians 2:9

        Boasting is particularly offensive when it is heard
 among the children of God, the one place above all
 others where it should never be found.  Yet it is quite
 common among Christians, though often disguised
 somewhat by the use of the stock expression,
"I say  this to the glory of God!"

        Another habit not quite so odious is belittling
 ourselves. This might seem to be the exact opposite
 of boasting, but actually it is the same old sin traveling
 under a 'nom de plume'. It is simply egoism trying to act
 spiritual.  It is impatient Saul hastily offering an
 unacceptable sacrifice to the Lord.

       Self-derogation is bad for the reason that self must be
there to derogate.  Self, whether swaggering or groveling,
can never be anything but hateful to God!
 
     God is very patient with His children and often
tolerates in them carnal traits so gross as to shock their
fellow Christians.  But that is only for a while.  As more
light comes to our hearts, and especially as we go on to
new and advanced spiritual experiences.  God begins to
impose disciplines upon us to purge us from the same
faults He tolerated before.

       After we have learned our lesson the Lord may
restore what He has taken away, for He is more
concerned with our souls than with our service.
But sometimes our boasting or belittling hurts us
permanently and excludes us from blessings we
might have enjoyed.

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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.