Recently, a friend and I were talking, and he brought up a really pertinent issue for many Christians - the line between confidence and arrogance. As followers of Christ, we are called to be humble ourselves in obedience to the Lord and to serve and love on others. Additionally, God gives each of us uniquely beautiful gifts, talents, and abilities that we are called to use to serve others for His kingdom. But there is a distinction between being humble, yet confident in the abilities the Lord has given us and being arrogant and conceited for the strengths we have.This has been on my mind quite a bit since our brief discussion and I know I have struggled with this tension too.

So the question remains: how do Christians prevent becoming prideful? How do we navigate feeling confident in using the abilities the Lord has given us to glorify Him while not jeopardizing our humility?

In responding to this question, I had a few initial thoughts. While they are far from perfect, and I am still thinking through this idea to understand it better, this was my response to my friend.

I think a big step in the right direction is to take the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given you and use them to serve His kingdom- not just talking about them. Selflessly serving other people beautifully demonstrates humility, and almost forces you to put yourself last with others. I think that truly demonstrates confidence in what the Lord is doing through you: putting yourself last and washing the feet of others, just like Jesus did with his disciples in John 13. By being selfless through service, you're saying that you are not better than other people, while implementing what God has called you to do with your gifts.

I think the other element of it is that pride is something that everyone struggles with in some regard- myself included. Because of how easy it is to fall into a pattern of pridefulness, I think a huge part of overcoming it includes prayer. I think it requires going before God daily and asking for wisdom and comfort as you work through the struggle of this particular sin.

Since this conversation, this has become my prayer: "Help me today as I wrestle with pride, God; be with me as I strive to focus less on myself and what I can do and while I look to you and the way you move through me. Grant me wisdom to know the difference between having confidence in who you made me to be and arrogance in accepting full credit when you deserve it all".

I am thankful for the raw conversation with my friend that this question sparked, and for the way that the Lord has placed this on my heart for further consideration. If you find yourself reading this and have some additional thoughts or advice, I'd love to hear it and dialogue with you about it.