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 con-

cerned with our souls than with our service. But some-

times 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.