Being prideful is different than being confident.
We are not supposed to be wet washcloths or people without backbones; investing in God’s Kingdom doesn’t mean that we walk around without confidence ourselves. In fact, you and I as believers should walk in confidence with Christ in any situation we encounter. Therefore, being all about Christ doesn’t mean we don’t have confidence, it just means we’re not overly confident and acting as if life is all about me.
Being prideful is different than expressing your personality.
God has given each one of us a personality that is unique. Our Personality portrays His goodness and His creativity. Therefore we preserve our personality in order to demonstrate God’s uniqueness through us. By expressing my personality, I am not merely trying to exonerate my uniqueness, rather I am enjoying the expression of God’s creativity through the way He has created me. We’re supposed to have personality; God finds joy in our personalities.
Being prideful is also different than setting our own personal goals.
If you have goals that are all about you and your objectives then perhaps your goals are distracting for God’s greater glory to be portrayed through you. Now don’t get me wrong, we’re supposed to be driven people, we’re supposed to be people that do good for God’s Kingdom. However, the bottom line is this: our goals must reflect God’s glory. Investing in goals isn’t wrong, we just have to make sure the chief-end for our goals in on mark with His glory.
The inspiration to build our image doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit
In the end, we must make sure that the image we’re investing in is bigger than ourselves; not that you make yourself out be something bigger than you are, rather that you’re investing in the Kingdom of God almighty. The inspiration to build our image doesn’t come from the Holy Spirit, but the inspiration to add to God’s image does come from the Holy Spirit. When you and I are using our gifts to please God and glorify Him, the inspiration for such work come from the Holy Spirit and the strength to sustain this effort is upheld by God Almighty.
