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Insight's to the Word with Pastor Teague!
My morning started out with a several phone calls and then a meeting at Panera’s for coffee with one of our young men. The conversation was good and I certainly enjoyed our time together. It was in the middle of this conversation that we engaged discussing arrogance and confidence in the life of the believer. What I shared with this young man is something that I want share with you.
Fasting is about getting close to the Lord. It’s about that “in-to-me-see” thing I keep bringing up. It’s about the Lord inspecting our hearts. It’s about total surrender to the One who knows the spirit of a man as only He can (1 Corinthians 2.10-16). I’m reminded of what the Psalmist wrote so very clear:
Psalms 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.
This passage in Psalms helps us know the difference between arrogance and confidence. The young man I was with this morning shared with me that he struggles with his strong sense of confidence being misunderstood as arrogance. I certainly have been a rider on that accusatory bus before! Let me clarify something here: there is a difference in one’s confidence being placed in his self (flesh) and in the Holy Spirit’s resident ruler-ship in his life (spirit man). One can easily mistake confidence in his spiritual life as arrogance.
Arrogance is confidence in the flesh and the flip side of the arrogance coin is pride. Confidence is a personal trust in the Holy Spirit’s presence in one’s life and the flip side of this coin is humility. Pride and humility are the roots of each of these dynamics.
When arrogance is present – there is the absence of humility. One takes pride in who he is, what he has accomplished, his trophies, awards, educational accomplishment and secular promotions.
When confidence in the Spirit is present – there is an absence of pride and one is humbled by his accomplishments, he counts it a privilege to have any level of education and realizes that all promotion comes from the Lord (Psalm 75.6-7).
You can see Paul’s confidence and humility in several passages of scripture:
2 Corinthians 10:1
1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:
Galatians 2:20
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Ephesians 3:8
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
During this fasting season I would that we could discover and experience the difference in arrogance and confidence. Arrogance is discovered in “churchy” folk who think they live better than others. They have a sense of self-righteousness that causes them to “look down their noses” as those of a different behavior or expression or level of faith. They are quick to condemn new believers for their lack of discipleship.
Confident believers are not moved by the applause of men nor the trophies attained with any effort of the flesh. They realize their very existence is in Christ. We are who we are in Christ alone – not in and of ourselves. Paul said that he counted all but “rubbish” in his relationship to Christ. Take a look at how Paul the apostle lays out his philosophy of ministry:
Philippians 3:7-11
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul had simple philosophy of ministry. It was simple in that he knew where he came from, who he was at the present, where he was going and Who he represented in getting there. He had this unique way of submitting every day to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in his life. He was not arrogant. There wasn’t an ounce of pride in his life. On the other hand there was a boat load of humility which gave fruit to the confidence he had. Ask yourself rather there is pride in who you are and what you have accomplished in life. If there is anything that points to human pride, human effort or human ability – you need to crucify the flesh. All pride should have nail prints in its existence. It needs to be crucified so that humility can be resurrected in its place. Then and only then can one have confidence to walk with his head high and his shoulders squared. We might start by quoting this passage every morning in our prayer and devotion time…really quote with it with a sincere heart and don’t be surprised when He checks you on your thoughts or the expression of your words…because He will!
Psalms 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.
Pastortimteague's Blog 
I agree and would like to add one thought. To be humble you have to do humbling things, humility is not a state of mind. I believe humility is doing things that others feel are beneath them. Humility is an action word and by doing things that involve you stooping to assist someone else you will remain humble. The higher the Lord gets in our lives the lower we must go or pride sets in, it is a law a principal. So go out and “do humble”!