Mike Sansone

Confidence or Conceit?

Whenever I’ve thought too highly of myself, I’ve been proven wrong by humbling circumstances.

Rather than a ‘Look what I can do’ attitude (Isa 5:21), things work out better when I carry on with the belief that ‘I can do all things through Christ.’ (Php 4:13).

When it’s going good – It’s not because of me, it’s because of Him.

If I find myself getting offended (Psa 119:165), I soon realize I’m being filled with my own pride.

In Prov 28:11, we read:

The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.

Are we filled with confidence or conceit?

Even if I get a pat on the back (from someone else, not myself), I try to reflect the credit up (so as not to reject it altogether).

Through Jesus, I can be securely confident. On my own accord, I am foolishly conceited.

Which would you prefer? Would you tell your dear friend the truth – or hope someone else does it?

It could be as simple as a zipper falling or as complex as a bad behavior pattern. Would you do the telling?

If you don’t tell them, do you really love them?

Open rebuke is better than secret love. (Prov 27:5)

Matthew Henry’s commentary of this passage reads:

The physician’s care is to cure the patient’s disease, not to please his palate

So it goes with love. Reveal, rather than conceal, truths to those you love.

On the other side, receive such words from one who loves you, knowing the intent. I wish I would’ve in so many cases of loving rebuke. While it may not have seemed so then, I am grateful to those who loved me so much to tell me the truth.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. (Prov 27:6)

Faithful are the wounds of a friend. With loving intent and risk, telling truths with love.

We live in such a time that outrage is a sport of sorts. There seems to be an addiction, almost like outrage porn.

• Someone cuts you off in traffic going way too fast. Now you’re upset! You follow them … to the Emergency Room entrance. They are running into the hospital with their child.
• Someone looks in your direction from across the street and makes weird faces and gestures with their hand. You yell at them from your side, “What’s your problem?” They don’t hear you. They are too busy trying to get the bee off of them without spilling their latte.
• Someone manipulates a headline or photoshops an image and the buzz feeds the finger-pointers and meme mongrels.

Proverbs 25:8 warns us to slow things down:

Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.

Often, we enter a battle without knowing the grounds or even what the battle is about. The battle has become the game. Outrage the addiction. Facebook the needle?

Slow down. Keep your wood off the fire (Prov 26:20). Don’t be in a hurry to battle.

There might not be one worth fighting.

If you do find a battle, settle it amicably and privately (Prov 25:9).