Misplaced Glory

If genuine humility and “basking in the glory of Christ” go hand-in-hand, where does “lowly” thinking of ourselves fit in? Quite well actually... Let me suggest this: pride is really misplaced glory. Instead of treasuring the infinite glory of Christ, we treasure our own “goodness”, our own self-sufficiency, our own glory. But the irony is that our glory is often not glory at all—it’s depravity! This is something that I have been personally fighting. It’s good for me to always repeat to myself, “David Koo is very bad! But God is good!” And the truth is that this radical innate sense of self-sufficiency and smugness and spiritual rebellion exists in the very heart and soul of every person (although it may be easier to outwardly visualize in some people than others). This disposition towards pride and rebellion has marked humanity ever since man’s fall in Eden. However, the beauty of a correct understanding of our broken and sinful nature is that it helps us to refocus our gaze from self onto the glory of Christ and his shocking work on the cross. And in doing so, not only do we gain a good and sober assessment of ourselves, we receive a wondrous and a sin-killing vision of God. And remarkably, love for others grows in the soft soil of this joyful humility.

Father, forgive us for an incorrect assessment of ourselves. We are all broken vessels that forget that we are broken. We are all sinful creatures that too easily forget of our sinfulness. Help us Father to lean on you daily. And please help us to focus our gaze on the source of all goodness, love, humility, beauty, and truth. In Christ’s name we pray... Amen.