The Scripture teachings warn us repeatedly about being filled with pride in our own strength and capabilities. This however, does not mean that we should think ourselves incapable of doing anything in a given situation. Having being made part of God’s family, through faith in the Saviour Lord, we are made different from others and in a blessed state. The right way of living as a follower of Lord Jesus Christ is to live successfully without getting filled with pride while thanking the Lord for His mercy and grace for everything.
Should we speak about our successes before God? Humility, as per the Scripture is a characteristic that sees and thinks less of oneself in relation to God. It is not about degrading oneself but caring more for others. It is closely related to the fear and reverence of God. Developing an attitude of thankfulness, for everything that we have, towards God is essential for a humble nature. The best example of humility that we need to understand and follow is the Son of God Himself, who being God emptied Himself of His Divine glory to put on humanity (Philippians 2:7). Lord Jesus identified Himself with God, to declare His total dependence on Him, to say, ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do’ (John 5:7).
But does God desire His chosen ones, His children, to live a life having least amount of self-respect? As per the Word, ‘God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him’ and after that the task assigned to man is to subdue the earth while giving him dominion over every created thing on the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). How can a person with such a great identity feel little? Moses wanted to encourage the Israelites by sending twelve representatives, one from each tribe, to go and see for themselves the land that God promised to give to them. They went and saw the beauty of the land, its abundance and brought some of the produce to show to others. However, they focused more on the inhabitants of the land and their relative physical size as compared to themselves in the LORD God. Since they had lived as slaves in Egypt for four hundred years, they forgot their own stature in the sight of the ‘giants’ of Canaan.
The LORD God told Moses to go and tell Pharaoh, Israel is My son, My firstborn’ (Exodus 4:22). Jacob, while blessing all his sons just before his death, said to Reuben, his eldest son, ‘you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength’ (Genesis 49:3). The blessing that was decreed on Israel is also the blessing that all believers receive through faith. Thus, we represent God’s strength and His might on earth and God the Holy Spirit equips us to be witnesses of that through our works. But like the twelve spies, the moment we shift our focus from God and on to our self-sufficiency, we become like grasshoppers before others.
The story of their redemption from Egypt and all the wonderful miracles performed by Moses under the hand of God are repeatedly mentioned in the Scripture. The purpose of God in this is not to show Himself as great in their eyes but also to keep reminding them about their importance and value in His eyes. Many churches adopt the system of ‘open mike’ for a specific time during the service, when anyone can and confess anything before the congregation. Invariably, people give a testimony about the blessing they have received in this period. The Roman Catholic Church uses confession before a Priest, from behind a screen or in a confession place where neither the priest nor the person confessing can see each other, to ensure privacy. This is about confession of sins and seek prayer for forgiveness. Apostle John has assured all believers that ‘if we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us our unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).
But is a God, who so loves His people, only interested in pointing out their weaknesses? Surely, if we do not realize our mistakes, we can never make efforts to improve ourselves. But, in the same way, unless we accept our strong points, we will not be encouraged that we can definitely overcome our weaknesses also once we seek the hand of God for that. Confession of our good points before God is not boasting in our own capabilities but to thank Him for His hand of guidance and strength. Apostle Paul used this same manner to express his ability to ‘do all things’ but not his own strength or capabilities (Philippians 4:13). He banked on heavenly hand to do this ‘through Christ who strengthens me’. Apostle James, head of the first Church in Jerusalem cautions us from boasting in our own provisioning. He has taught, ‘every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights’ (James 1:17). Acknowledging this fact, our submission must be an expression of gratitude to God who does not close His fist to starve us of good and perfect things. God, who is so merciful to answer or cries for help, must receive the glory.
Lord Jesus taught us to pray following a certain pattern and the very first part of that is, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name’ (Matthew 6:9). Recognizing the One being sought as ‘Our Father in heaven’ implying a closeness and inherent right, we identify ourselves with God with our responsibility to give Him glory. Confession is, thus, expressing our dependence on the Lord, while praising and thanking Him for what we received in the past. In this way we acknowledge receipt and keep the door open for future blessings.
How can one praise self before God? In the Old Testament, which many believers have been told is no longer relevant, tithing is one of the major aspects of life. An Israelite was required to pay various types of tithes from what he had received from God, according to a seven-year cycle. First is ‘terumah’ which is around 2% paid to the Priests. Second is ‘maser reshon’, around 10% paid to the Levites, who were Temple servants and teachers. Then there were other tithes that varied every year. For the first and second year, in addition to the earlier two they were to separate ‘maser sheni’, a portion of the crop and take it to Jerusalem and eat there to add to the economy of that place by visiting. In the third year, along with ‘terumah’ and ‘maser rehon’ a portion was given to the poor and it was in addition to various other things shared with them. This was called ‘maser ani’. During the years 4 and 5 it was the same as years 1 and 2 and in the year 6 it was as per year three. The seventh year was a Sabbatical year and the fields were not sown and were open to anyone to take what grew of its own.
On the day before Passover festival of year 4 and 7, every Jew had to ensure that he had delivered what was due for the earlier three years to their proper places. He was then required to make a confession or declaration before the LORD God. The command is, ‘Then you shall say before the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them’ (Deuteronomy 26:12-15). After this, there is the next part, ‘I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me’. This is basically complimenting oneself to say, LORD see how good I have been. But He knows all about me and as per Jewish legend, this confession is called ‘Vidui Maaser’, The Tithing Confession.
A ‘vidui’ is a confession where we admit our wrongdoings and seek forgiveness but this is exactly opposite to all that. Supposing you tell your wife I want to confess something and then start telling her how good you have been to her, the children and everyone around. You can imagine her reaction! But this is what we are asked to say before the LORD. Confession is not only about declaring before God, who in any case knows more about us than we know, our sins, our evil deeds and how bad we feel about it. What the psychologists are now teaching about positive thinking as a means to overcome your weaknesses and thus change the attitude to walk in a right manner, God commanded thousands of years ago.
God in His love desires His children to come before Him not with a pride filled manner but in a focused manner to confess the one area, where they could have faulted, of success. When I am only looking at the wrongs committed by me, what the devil wants me to do, I will eventually start believing that there is no way that I can change. I will miss to achieve what God has decreed for me with the potential that He has filled me with. A positive confession is accepting my capability to be good, when I make an earnest effort, and thus prevent the evil from dominating my life. Such confession shows me in the state God wants me to be in and any stain of evil deed, then, gets noticed by me straightaway and I can seek God to help me in that area also.
Acknowledging before God the one area of success of my life also helps me thank God for His help in achieving that. It is then that I become confident in faith that the Lord will lead me in the right paths in other areas of life also. Sincere confession implies that I am sometimes wrong and sometimes wrong and now I have erred. The one who says, ‘I am always wrong’ is not accepting his mistake but blaming everything else for his faults.
The Shulamite woman called out, ‘I am dark, but lovely’ (Song of Solomon 1:5). With this she accepted her outward appearance was totally different from what she was within, a lovely person. This one line reveals three steps of transformation; first, I regret what I did, that is dark, I accept and I want to change. Second, I realize that I could have avoided this for it stains my inherent God given nature and I want to fix it now. Third, I know the love of my God for me and I want to become ‘lovely’ for Him again. In this manner I can turn to the Lord being assured of His help in turning my weaknesses into strengths in Him. I confess not only to God but also to myself, that I can change in my weak areas. This gives true meaning to my other confessions of wrongdoing.
It is like a child showing his school report card to his father, who can rebuke him for the three subjects that he did poorly. Or he can praise him for the other three in which he excelled, while helping him find a way to do better in everything. Identify the one good thing that you regularly perform and tell your pastor, your wife or friend. Only then you will be likely to question yourself as to why I am not good in other things and change.
Avoiding pride with confession of good – The confession is also a way to recognize the hand of God in our lives because of which we are saved and the Holy Spirit in us keeps on convicting us of our sins, by reminding and helping to change. This is a humble way to thank God for His love and mercy for us. Apostle Paul shows us the real picture of our life by teaching us that, ‘it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13). God’s desire is to see all His children living the way of His Son, loving and caring for each other. When He helps us identify the good, He also reveals the bad and then His Spirit in us helps us to walk in His ways.
The Lord encouraged Israelites and us through His word to the prophet, ‘The LORD your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will take great delight in you; in His love no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing’ (Zephaniah 3:17). Through faith in the forgiveness of sins by the Savior Lord, we become a new creation but the old sinful nature remains. It becomes a daily battle within a believer to face and not fall prey to the evil temptations that the devil brings before us. When we confess our sins seeking forgiveness every day, we must also acknowledge how we could avoid and escape some situations. In this manner we bring joy to our loving Father and it is beyond our imagination that He would rejoice over us with singing for some good that we managed to do.
The deep and definite attachment of our God to us is seen in His son. The absolute loneliness, is absence of attachment and once we fully believe and live as a ‘child of God’, the greatest temptation also fails to make us stumble. In my stumbling also, I realize that in me is His divine presence and no evil can penetrate my soul to misalign me from my Lord. The devil and his roaring are powerful but I can face him in the power of my Lord and the list of my successes keeps on increasing daily. My confession becomes strong in His power and might and my oneness with the Creator helps me, like Joseph, to flee from the evil desires of the likes of Potiphar’s wife. It is then that my confession is more about God than about what I have achieved for I am His child and my sole purpose of life is to bring joy to my Lord and my God. Then my cry of despair over my failures and my joy over success are both acceptable before Him, for He builds me up to walk in His will and ways.
In our daily living, there are certain situations that we face for which we can thank God for His Divine hand of help in helping us come out successful. No father can ever be happy to see his children stuck perpetually in problems and grief. Our confession of success in certain areas of life not only bring joy to our heavenly Father but also encourages us to be better in other aspects of life. This alone is the real way of success for a believer!
