Faith or Ego??

Sometimes you can get a bad rap. Sometimes people look at you and get the wrong idea. They think that you are arrogant or full of yourself. They see your confidence and think that you are an egomaniac. There are many cases of this misidentification in history. A political leader seems full of vanity, but actual he is just self-assured. A sports figure might appear to be stuck on himself, but he is just confident.

I can think of a couple of situations in the Bible where the same sort of thing happened.

1. Joseph was despised by his brothers. His first problem was that he was his father's favorite child. There were 12 sons in the family. Being the favorite of 12 is a big deal. The brothers grew to resent Joseph because of his preferred status in the family. But that was not enough. Joseph began to have dreams in which he seemed to be exalted even further above his brothers. The resentment of the brothers grew to hatred when Joseph shared his dreams with them. However, their hatred was based on the belief that Joseph thought he was better than his brothers. This may not be the case. Joseph received a message from God which caused his confidence level to go up. His faith in God was at an all-time high. The brothers thought they were hating the egomaniacal rantings of Joseph, when in fact, they were protesting a work of God.
2. David had much the same experience with his brothers. Although he was the youngest of the family, he was the one chosen by God to be the next king of Israel. And although it seems that David received no special treatment from his family, surely some attention must have been paid to this unusual event. One of the most famous stories in the life of David gives us our story, though. When he heard the challenge of Goliath, David was filled with the confidence of God. He was the granted the faith to challenge the giant. But his brothers didn't see it that way. They thought their little brother had gotten too big for his breeches.

Now there are two things that we need to know/do. First of all, when you are filled with the confidence of God, stand for him and do what he asks. Pay no attention to those who may accuse you of being arrogant and headstrong. Do what God has called you to do. And secondly, when you are tempted to complain about the ego/vanity of someone else, think about whether or not their ego is of the flesh, of faith given by God.