I read this morning in Proverbs 27:21 that a “man is tested by the praise he receives.”
One might think more readily of other tests of character that undo us: hardship, loss, failure, or peer pressure. But praise?
Praise must test us in the deepest places. Praise tempts us to believe we’re the real hero. It robs us of the joy of proclaiming, “That wasn’t me. All along it wasn’t me.”
It was God. It was also us as we live interdependently. It was an entire network of sovereignly appointed circumstances that we actually had no say in. All we have, we’ve been graciously given.
It wasn’t me.