It All Depends On Who Is Wearing The Crown

“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Proverbs 27:1 Boasting leads to downfall. A man driven by pride boasts about what he’s going to accomplish as though it all depended upon himself, oblivious to the fact that his very life is in the hands of the Lord upon whom his next breath depends. The Lord looks with disdain upon the proud, for pride is one of the greatest sins. It was pride that caused Lucifer, the highest and most glorious of all the angels, to fall. Read the five “I wills” of Lucifer, now called Satan: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13-14 Satan’s “I wills” brought heaven's response: "you won't!" Though he was the greatest of all the angels, his “I wills” got him banished out of heaven. Every man filled with pride will eventually be brought down. Hear the Lord’s response to Satan’s “I wills:" vs 15: “Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” Pride is the straightest and broadest road to hell. The proud man won’t stray to the left or to the right, he will keep his focus on his goals and on his cleverness without realizing he is on his way to perdition. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18 Why is that so? It’s because a proud person thinks more highly of himself than what is true. He feels invincible. He loves his cleverness and uses it against those he considers lower than himself. He has no thought that there is a God in heaven wiser and more powerful than he. The proud man is the greatest of fools because he deceives his own self. The faithful, on the other hand, knows that every element of his life is ordered by God. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way.” Psalm 37:23 The good man has a realistic knowledge of himself. He is not too proud to see himself as a sinner. He is aware that he is a human being with limitations, and he reveres God. He takes the crown off his head and surrenders to the King who is alone worthy of it. He is no longer his own lord, his life has been joyfully surrendered to the God who brought him into the world to begin with. When a person surrenders himself and his life to the Lord, the Lord takes over and directs his steps in a different direction from what the man would have chosen for himself. The end of that journey will result in the person reaching his highest potential. When a person dons the crown and takes his life into his own hands, he stops the process the Lord would have led him in, and the road he chooses for himself goes nowhere good. It can’t. Pride is a deceiver and a destroyer. But when a person surrenders his life to the will of God, he is placing his life in the hands of the one who alone can work things out for his highest good. Pride leads to hell. Surrender leads to the joys of heaven, even now in this lifetime, and then in the world to come. How sad for a man to arrive at the end only to realize he has missed God’s plan for his life. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.”

-Dwight L. Moody