CAUTION: OUR EGO WILL TRY TO ACT SPIRITUAL
“Not of works, lest any man should boast” (EPHESIANS 2:9).
Boasting is particularly offensive when it is heard among the children of God, the one place above all others where it should never be found. Yet it is quite common among Christians, though often disguised somewhat by the use of the stock expression, “I say this to the glory of God!”

Another habit not quite so odious is belittling ourselves. This might seem to be the exact opposite of boasting, but actually it is the same old sin traveling under a nom de plume. It is simply egoism trying to act spiritual. It is impatient Saul hastily offering an unacceptable sacrifice to the Lord.

Self-derogation is bad for the reason that self must be there to derogate. Self, whether swaggering or groveling, can never be anything but hateful to God!

God is very patient with His children and often tolerates in them carnal traits so gross as to shock their fellow Christians. But that is only for a while. As more light comes to our hearts, and especially as we go on to new and advanced spiritual experiences, God begins to impose disciplines upon us to purge us from the same faults He tolerated before.

After we have learned our lesson, the Lord may restore what He has taken away, for He is more concerned with our souls than with our service. But sometimes our boasting or belittling hurts us permanently and excludes us from blessings we might have enjoyed.

A. W. Tozer