Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How highly should one think of himself or herself? We have many books and programs developed to build up one's "self-esteem." The Bible devotes considerable space to a man who had it in great abundance--King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a huge success as an empire conqueror and builder. He crowed, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" (Dan. 4:30). Enormous ego; everybody flattered him.
God did not humiliate him--it's questionable if He ever does that to anybody. All that God did for him was to deflate him like you pull the plug on an air mattress that goes flat (somehow the Lord saved his soul in the process). God let him go down gently to where he was, of himself: he ate grass like a cow for seven years (Daniel 4 tells the story). When it was over the king proclaimed throughout the world, "I ... honor the King of heaven, ... those who walk in pride He is able to abase" (vs. 37).
Paul reminds "everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think" (Rom. 12:3). Our constant problem is: how high is that? The answer: apart from the Lord's sustenance, a deflated mattress. (While He hung on His cross, the Son of God thought of Himself as a "worm, and no man," Psalm 22:6-8; can we relate to Him?)
Should we despise ourselves? No; Paul adds: "but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one the measure of faith." Hold your head as high as the dear Lord grants you the ability to do so; just remember--all you have (or think you have) is a "gift" from Him.
"He that is down needs fear no fall; he that is low, no pride; he that is humble, ever shall have God to be his [or her] guide" (John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 29, 2004.
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