Everything’s perfect

I know a Godly man who has everything going for him. He has risen to the top of his profession. He was recently elected to the highest position in an organization representing his peers. The Lord has blessed him with a wonderful wife and family. He is financially in excellent shape.
Recently he moved into a beautiful new home. He has friends and supporters galore. He is intelligent and witty.

I pray for him every day. Why am I worried about this guy? He is showing signs of an ego almost as big as his new house. He struts and is puffed up with himself. I’m afraid that he is slipping into the trap of thinking that he is responsible for his good fortune, rather than God. I experienced this myself long ago. I had been extremely successful in business and really thought that I was something. I strutted and was puffed up with myself and was convinced that I was really something. In my mind I had it all.

I negotiated a deal to take my company public. A three year audit is required to go public and soon after announcing it, we discovered that a ring of employees had been stealing us blind. I very nearly went bankrupt. It took many painful, difficult, long years to recover from that “fall”. With the loss of my money and the fate of my company in question, all my “good friends” disappeared. No longer was I the “golden boy” who could do no wrong in business. No longer did bankers take me to lunch. The only people who called me, wanted to threaten me with legal action. It was a very humbling and humiliating experience that I will never forget. It is an experience however, that I appreciate very much. I believe that God was taking me to the woodshed first and foremost to show me that it was not me, but Him who was responsible for my good fortune. He also showed me that He can give and He can take away. It had taken years of long hours and hard work to reach the point where we were so successful that it looked like I (and my company) were invincible. I had the rug pulled out from under me in less than one week. It took “seven” years to fully recover. (Yes I realize the significance of seven).

The lesson learned from this was that I should not be arrogant, and I should not set selfish goals. I realized that material things are temporal and can be lost in a heartbeat. I’m over that “fall” and do not want another. Material possessions are nice, but I can take them or leave them now. My eye is set on permanent things, not temporary. You will never see someone taking a U-Haul trailer full of money into the everlasting and I know first hand that it can be here today and gone tomorrow right here on earth.

Pride is satan’s most effective tool and I am afraid it has taken hold of this good person. Did you know that pride was the original sin that got us into this mess in the first place? If ever anyone had a reason to be proud it was Jesus Christ, yet He was the finest example of humility that we will ever see. He did not present Himself as one of the elite, although He is truly a King. He chose to be born in humble surroundings in a manger. He took an ordinary profession for a while as a carpenter. He washed His disciples feet. The King of all Kings set the example that He wants us to follow. There is no room for arrogance in God’s kingdom. There is no room for the elite. No exalted positions.
Jesus wants us to come to Him as “little children”.

There is one thing that pride will yield and that is destruction. I hope my friend wins this battle before pride works its demonic purpose in his life.

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Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before
a fall.
Better to be a humble spirit
with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with
the proud.

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