“Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”
Haman couldn’t imagine anyone being smarter, wiser, or more
important to the king, than he was… Does
that sound familiar? Are there times when you are overcome with your own
importance? That mindset is a recipe for
disaster. We easily see arrogance in others but have difficulty seeing it in
ourselves. The laser vision we have when
examining other people’s flaws seems to dim when we look inward.
When men have issues in their life it is usually in one of
two areas. Either too low a view of God… or too high a view of themselves…
Haman had the latter. To determine that
you are the most important person on the planet you first must discount the
value of everyone around you. Then you must lie to yourself about your own
accomplishments and motivations, and finally you must assume that everyone
loves you as much as you do. Haman had no problem with those requirements and
so he began the process that would end in his demise.
How far are you from starting that same process? How much of
a stretch is it for you to believe that we’re all lucky to know you and that
you of course should be honored? That
attitude can usually be cured with an authentic hard look in the mirror.
An Honest evaluation of your attributes and abilities is important, since
knowing where you are is necessary in getting you where you want to be… However,
at the end of the day only God’s opinion of you matters… and He has
demonstrated that He loves you, and that should be the only factor relevant to
your own self-image.
Now that your worth has been settled, you can focus on all
the other people that “the king may want to honor” … and how you might be able
to help with that project. Humility means you are secure and content with God’s
evaluation of you and have little concern of the opinion of men. This frees you
to forget about your own importance and focus on elevating those around you. The
God who created you in His own image has bestowed value on you, and He desires
that you bestow value on others.
“God won’t fill you if you are already full of
yourself.” – Max Lucado