John 5:44 How can you believe, you who receive honor from one another, and seek not the honor that comes from the only God?(KJ2000)
Receiving honour and praise from each other and not seeking it from God seems to be one of the biggest hindrances to belief. But why? Belief is in the heart. So how can receiving honour, affect our hearts?
Is it that by doing so our egos get massaged into such a state that we believe we are better than we are, more important than others, that we think too highly of ourselves. Is it that by doing so we let pride into our hearts?
Pride is most dangerous. Usually we concern ourselves with low self-esteem. But pride is worse. Pride is an over-inflated view of ourselves. Pride is a state of our hearts that says "I don't need God, I can do this on my own." Pride stops us relying on God and puts a huge barrier between us and God. Pride says "I have no need to pray, I can do this just as well myself."
Humility leads us toward God. It reminds us that we have need of God. A humble heart is a healthy heart. Humility is the true perspective on ourselves and our abilities. Pride is a deluded opinion.
And in this verse, tucked away, is one of the biggest sources of pride. Seeking and receiving the honour, the praises of people, seeking popularity, reflecting on just how important others' may view us. All of these things feed our hearts with pride.
The opposite of this is to reflect on how God views us. He is the truth, after all, and by seeing things through His eyes we will remain humble.
John 15v 5 "Apart from Me, you can do nothing (of eternal significance)"
Phil 4v13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
The truth is we are incredibly important and incredibly valuable because Christ died for us. We are incredibly able because Christ lives in us. (Gal 2v20)
So let us feed our hearts with nutrition by reflecting on God's view of us and our relationships with Him with prosper. Let us be wary of believing others opinions.
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