The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“For if anyone thinks that he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

—Galatians 6:3

When we think better of ourselves than we do of others or we think we’ve attained some level of enlightened spiritual greatness over others, we’ve allowed pride to take root, and we’re no longer recognizing the truth of ourselves.

In reality, any goodness that seems to come from us actually comes through us from Christ. We are nothing without the Spirit of God working in us, and knowing that should keep us humble.

We do well to remember it when we face those in whom we cannot see goodness. If we could see ourselves as we would be without Christ, we would be no better—and at risk of becoming much worse. The good we do is nothing we can boast of in and of ourselves; we can only boast in Christ and the sacrifice he made for us on the cross (Galatians 6:14).

Some of us may have gifts that put us front and center or that worldly wisdom tells us are more valuable than other gifts. But Romans 12:3–8 says we should not let those gifts make us think more highly of ourselves than we do of anyone else, because each gift is given from God. None is more important than another. When we begin to be arrogant in our own abilities, we become deceived. All our gifts, training, intelligence, talent, and advantages can be counted as rubbish, as Paul says in Philippians 3:4–11. They can all be used for evil if the Holy Spirit is not working in and through us.

It’s only our Lord who makes us into something.

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