Selfrighteous Misunderstanding of Success

When we work hard toward a goal and achieve it we should be proud of our success and we should grow confident that when we give effort toward an outcome we can do it. However, often we succeed just because we were in the right place at the right time. Some people are just lucky.

When we experience this kind of success we often believe that somehow we deserve it. If it is something we really want, or even prayed for it is easy to begin patting ourselves on the back. Even after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because of disobedience people will still be people and if we lose focus on the fact that we are wicked and lost without God’s provision of a Savior we begin to think we did something when in reality we were just there.

“4 Do not think to yourself after the Lord your God has driven them out before you, “Because of my own righteousness the Lord has brought me here to possess this land.” It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out ahead of you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness, or even your inner uprightness, that you have come here to possess their land. Instead, because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out ahead of you in order to confirm the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”