E.G.O. – Edging God Out

Our egos fuel us to contend with God. We get a little success and we start feeling pretty good about ourselves. We read our ‘press’ and believe it. Compliments, testimonials, thank you notes, recognition by people and organizations we respect feels good. Real good.

But just like there’s only one steering wheel in a car, there’s only one “CEO” in our lives. When we’re going for what we want, irrespective of what God wants, our ego is in charge and we start ‘edging God out’. This doesn’t usually happen all at once. It’s subtle. Someone pays us a compliment and instead of taking it as a gift or deflecting it in humility, we believe it. We take a big risk and it pays off…we feel pretty keen about our success and pride swells our chest. ‘Important’ people start to know our name and before we know it, we’re thinking we’re pretty important.

I’ve been reading a Psalm every day. Sometimes the words of David bother me…he seems so confident in himself and God and so down on the ‘unrighteous’. He seems to have the ego the size of Texas, saying things like “Know that the Lord has set apart his faithful servant for himself, the Lord hears when I call to him” (Psalm 4:3) and “Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy mountain? Those whose walk is blameless, who do what is righteous, who speak the truth from their hearts…” (Psalm 15:1-2).

I keep thinking “Oh, if you only knew what’s ahead, big boy!”

David’s on a roll. He calls for the Lord’s wrath on those who deceive, covet and kill. But then when he’s blessed with success, his ego takes over and what does he go and do? Deceive, covet and kill. As Bob Bevington says in Red like Blood …

Ultimately, our displays of sin reveal the fact that although we say we love God, we love ourselves more. We fail to uphold his glory because we want it for ourselves. Our default mode is self-centeredness, not God-centeredness.[1]

Handling success may be harder than handling failure. One of the little things I’ve tried to do since I surrendered to Jesus years ago is to not take credit for stuff. When awards, recognition or praise has come my way, I’ve tried to deflect it…to never take credit personally. Trying not to sound self-righteous or super-pious, I’ll say “Well, if it’s good, it’s God… I showed what I can do in the years before I met Him” or “We’ve been very blessed” or “God has been so incredibly good to us.” I don’t want to seem ungrateful, so I always say “Thank you”. Most of the time, that’s enough. Just “thank you”.

I’m all for healthy self esteem. And it’s a joke to think we can quash our egos and live in selfless, sinless perfection. But it’s important for Christ-followers to keep themselves grounded. We miss it big-time when we ‘edge God out’ and forget that every single victory comes through His hand, no matter how smart we are, how hard we work, or how much we sacrifice to get there.

Question: How’s your ego lately? Getting pretty big on yourself? How are you stacking up on self-centeredness vs. God-centeredness? Tell us here…