Failure and Success: The Small and the Great

...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." —1 Peter 5:5

Some time ago we heard a short address by a young preacher during which he quoted the following, "If you are too big for a little place, you are too little for a big place."

It is an odd rule of the kingdom of God that when we try to get big, we always get smaller by the moment. God is jealous of His glory and will not allow anyone to share it with Him. The effort to appear great will bring the displeasure of God upon us and effectively prevent us from achieving the greatness after which we pant.

Humility pleases God wherever it is found, and the humble person will have God for his or her friend and helper always. Only the humble are completely sane, for they are the only ones who see clearly their own size and limitations. Egotists see things out of focus. To themselves they are large and God is correspondingly small, and that is a kind of moral insanity. This World: Playground or Battleground?, 34.

"Lord, help me never to be too big for a little place. In humility let me serve and revel in You as my 'friend and helper always.' Amen."