What Are You Driven By?

What drives most people in the world, whether knowingly or unknowingly, are fear and pride: fear of the things of this world and pride in oneself. People fear the future, people fear failure, people fear loss, people fear judgment, some people even make life decisions out of their fear of how other people will respond! People also allow their pride to try to cover their insecurities, to choose things that will feed their ego or selfishness, and to never let themselves become vulnerable. Pride will even cause people to drop friendships or relationships because of petty things that shake their self esteem. 

What should drive Christians? Confidence and humility. Confidence in who we are in God: His sons and daughters, His servants, His beloved, His creation, His joy. Humility in who we are before God: we have nothing except what we have received from Him and we are only worthy to receive because of the sacrifice of Christ.

In every trial and every victory a person can respond with either fear/pride, or with confidence/humility. How a person chooses to respond demonstrates their true maturity. I believe God allows testing and difficulty to cleanse us from our fear/pride (earthly status) and make us strong and secure in confidence/humility (heavenly status). To try and run away from such trials demonstrates that fear and pride still have control. To endure such trials with patience and love shows that confidence and humility have taken root.

Rather than having fear of this world, we should have confidence of who we are in Him. He loves us and will take care of our every need. His promises are true and eternal! He is our true source of life: Romans 8:14-16, 37-39, Psalm 121, Psalm 139:13-18, Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 28:20b, Jeremiah 31:3, Ephesians 1:18.

Rather than letting pride rule us, we should have humility before God. We should choose to live a life of unselfish love, keeping humble before God and His creation: John 3:30, Romans 12:1, Matthew 20:26-28, Philippians 2:8, 1Peter 5:5.

Be vulnerable with others; don’t let fear or pride hold you back in anything. Let confidence and humility take root. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).