We often sing “Victory in Jesus”, but too often we then try to take credit for ourselves. That’s why J. H. Jowett said, “The hour of victory is a more severe moral test than the hour of defeat”. Indeed it is. While we might hang our head in shame after suffering a defeat, we tend to strut like a peacock when we win. Sinful man craves attention and desires credit for his deeds, whether he deserves it or not. He loves to exaggerate the truth and embellish the story so as to get a pat on the back– although he deserves a kick in the seat of his pants.
But here’s the truth. Even your greatest victory (accomplishment or success) was in no wise due to your greatness. Whether it required wisdom, strength, courage, or patience, it was God who gave it to you. He alone deserves the credit and praise. Were it not for Him we would neither “will” nor “do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). It is only because He “worketh in you” that you are able or willing. Why then do we drown out the praise to Him by shouting about our accomplishments?
Pride is a terrible thing. Pride produces more problems than you can imagine. We dare not use what God has done as an evidence of what we can do. Without Him we could do nothing! The only thing that makes any man good or great is that he does the will of God for the glory of God, by the means supplied by God. And a man like that would never make his boast in anything save the grace of God. Indeed there is victory in Jesus–it is found no place else.–HDS
