You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.  – Deuteronomy 8:17-18

There’s a sense of pride that comes with a job well done – finishing a project at work, building something for your home, or manicuring the lawn.  It arises when we’ve overcome a great obstacle – gotten over a sickness or injury, reached a milestone, or accomplished a feat.  This sense of pride lets us know that we’ve done our best and accomplished more than we thought we could.  But when we begin to glory in our accomplishments, our pride has gotten out of hand.  When I feel like I need to advertise or broadcast what I’ve done, it shows that I’m more concerned with people noticing my accomplishments than I am with people noticing God’s goodness.  Wicked pride comes from a heart that wants to be glorified as only God is entitled to be glorified.  When I want people to praise me, speak well of me, and see me in a positive light, I’m taking the glory that rightly belongs to God.  May everything we do point to Him and not to ourselves.  I want to do my work well and feel like I’ve accomplished something important at the end of the day, but I want God to receive the glory for anything good in my life.  He’s the one who ordained it to be so in the first place.