2 Corinthians 10:17-18–No Use Boasting In Myself

2 Corinthians 10:17-18: "'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'  For it is not the one who commends himself who will be approved, but the one whom the Lord commends."

I warn you: today, I am going to be rather autobiographical and expose a disdainful part of myself in reference to this verse.  It may get a little long.  And please forgive me my pride, anyone whom I may have injured in the past for my egotism.

I have always had a busy mouth.  What I mean by that is that I have often found myself talking more than is ever necessary.  And while I can faithfully attest that by the grace of God I have seen significant sanctification in my speech, I must say that in my earlier years the motivation for my mouthiness was two-fold: pride and insecurity.

When I was younger, I was very insecure about my intellect but I was also very prideful of my ability to communicate.  As a result, the main content of my speech mostly dealt with how great I thought I was, especially in regards to my intelligence.  It was as if by telling people how smart I was then maybe I would actually be how smart I told everyone.  The truth, however, was far more dubious.

Instead of proving my brain power by telling people about how smart I was, the only thing I proved was how much of a donkey I could be.  After all, a prideful person is already difficult while a prideful person that tells you how proud they are is an altogether bane.  So rather than letting everyone known about the greatness of me I let everyone know about my own supreme deficiency: personal pride.

This came to a head once when during one exceptionally prideful episode in which I was too busy telling people how much I knew about everything to listen to any wisdom, when my grandfather told me something that I will never forget.

He said, "You know, you don't have to tell everyone how smart you are.  If you really are as smart as you think you are, they'll figure it out.  The best athlete never has to tell people how good he is; the way he plays will let everyone know."

This verse hits me square in the heart.  It has been a major part of my Christianity to put to death my pride so that I would not ever boast in myself but that I would only boast in the greatness of God and how good He has been to me.  I spent years trying to 'manage' my pride through self-examination.  But it was only when I looked squarely into the holiness of God and His Son, Christ Jesus, that my pride has been put to death in the flesh and I have been, by the grace of God, made new.

My earnest and ever-present prayer, then, is that I would keep my eyes fixed firmly on Christ and His awesomeness.  This is the only way to truly stop any root of pride from blooming in our hearts: to stare into the holiness of the Almighty Lord.  For in comparison to Him, we are but creatures who are wholly dependent on Him for sustaining existence moment-by-moment.