It’s a fairly good guess that anyone who builds a statue of themselves is probably trying to compensate for something. Nebuchadnezzar’s statue was the ultimate display of pride. And the truth is, we all have a little Nebuchadnezzar in us. We can get upset when people don’t do what we want. We can get angry when we don’t get our own way. We want people to look up to us and tell us how great we are. We might not realise it, but we’re looking for praise and worship. We wouldn’t build a massive statue though; our monuments to ourselves are much more subtle. We might exaggerate on our CV, choose a heavily edited photo for our profile picture, or tell white lies to hide the less-than-great areas of our lives. But when we cover up our insecurities behind these sorts of things, it shows us that we’re not finding our identity and security in Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. When we understand what God thinks about us, and how much Jesus was prepared to sacrifice for us, we can be secure in who we are. Paul wrote: ‘I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God’ (Galatians 2:20-21 MSG). Once we really take to heart the fact that God loves us and that He’s delighted to put in the effort to help us work on our flaws and failings, we’ll find that it doesn’t matter so much what other people think about us. We won’t crave praise and flattery. We’ll crave God instead.

What Now?

What things have you exaggerated or tried to cover up this week to make yourself look good? Ask God to give you a fresh awareness of His opinion and love for you.