Never Praise Yourself
How do you feel about self promotion?
Verse of the Day
‘Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth— a stranger, not your own lips.’
Today’s Devotional
It is interesting to me that the theme of humility is seen in both the Old and New Testaments. Humility teaches us that “getting credit” isn’t the reason we do things. If I am living by the philosophy taught in 1 Corinthians 10:31, which we read a few days ago, then everything I do is for God’s glory.
God knows that we all struggle with different forms and symptoms of pride. It’s part of the battle of being a human who loves Jesus. Personally, I appreciate it when there are specific directions given that help with the battle against pride. Today’s verse gives us very specific directions: Do not self promote.
I will be the first to admit that this is hard for me. And knowing this, I don’t feel completely qualified to write about it. I found a few other Christian bloggers who had some wise words about today’s verse.
This is from mindrenewers.com:
“The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible commentary kept it simple on this verse: “Avoid self-praise.” It certainly isn’t hard to understand this proverb, they nailed it with great precision, but perhaps we can find a little more than that to say here, so I’ll toss in a few other hopefully profitable thoughts.
- It is not just that self-praise is of less value than the praise of others, it is actually detrimental.
- We are to live a life of such moral quality that others, when they speak of us, will have good things to say, rather than bad things to say.
- We are to be so exemplary in our character that even “strangers”, those who don’t know us well, will speak positively. Those who know us well and care about us should see the work of Christ in our lives — but so also those who are more disinterested.
- Are we spending our time developing things for which we want the praise of others? When I was using painkillers after my operation, I couldn’t concentrate on anything, so I spent some time playing Mario Kart. I got good at Mario Kart! But I don’t want my tombstone to say “He was good at Mario Kart.” Others would be praising me, I guess, but not the praise I want. Since I stopped using painkillers, I haven’t really been refining my game driving skills. (I still enjoy it when I beat the kids sometimes, though!)
- There’s a reverse challenge here that is often overlooked. Are we speaking well of others? If someone is doing well, and no one ever notices, we may tempt them to discouragement and/or self-praise. We can be so careful, in avoiding tempting someone to pride, that we neglect the encouragement that God calls us to give. This verse is not just an exhortation to avoid self-praise, but also, practically, a reminder to encourage others.”
I love the challenge of this last bullet point. As people of humility, we should be looking for ways to praise others. My husband recently sought out a young man at church who had led worship for the first time. He wanted this young man to know that he had done a fabulous job and how grateful he was to him for using his talents in this way.
Sometimes it can be a little inconvenient to take the time to seek out the people who deserve praise. The challenge here is to do it anyway. Take the extra time. Be the voice of encouragement. Go out of your way to extend praise to anyone who is doing anything praiseworthy.
One more thing to note from the teaching of this verse: we should also avoid the humble-brag. The definition of a humble brag is: “an ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud.” Here is an example: Your friend complains about how swamped she is in her new director role. She’s so stressed, in fact, that she’s lost 10 pounds and can even fit into her old jeans from high school. As the listener, you translate your friend’s series of “complaints” and deduce the real meaning behind the brag—she’s proud of her new position and knows she looks better than ever. This is the art of the humblebrag.
Humility calls us to not seek recognition, and certainly not to point out our accomplishments to others. Humility also encourages us to go out of our way to give praise.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
When have you been guilty of self promotion?
When have you been guilty of humble bragging? Have you noticed this in others?
When have you received praise from a stranger and how did it feel?
How can you go out of your way today to praise someone? Or give encouragement?
How does praising others help with your humility?