A member of Parliament took his little daughter to visit Westminster Abbey. As she stood looking up at its magnificent columns, her father asked, “What do you think, sweetheart?” With childlike candor she replied, “I was thinking how big you look at home, Daddy, and how small you look in here.”

God’s presence has a way of humbling us. In the Old Testament, King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” The Bible’s filled with examples of people who humbled themselves before God. In Matthew’s gospel he mentions his own name only twice, and both times he calls himself a tax collector. John doesn’t even mention his own name in his gospel. The name “John” that appears throughout his gospel refers to John the Baptist. John simply calls himself “the other disciple,” or “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Luke wrote two of the most important books in the Bible without ever once mentioning his own name. Paul, the Bible’s most prolific author, referred to himself as “a fool” (2Co 12:11). He described himself as “the least of the apostles” (1Co 15:9), and later claimed to be “less than the least of all saints” (Eph 3:8). In fact, as Paul grew older his ego grew smaller, and in one of his final Epistles he referred to himself as “the chief of sinners” (See 1Ti 1:15). King David wrote no Psalm celebrating his victory over Goliath, but he wrote a Psalm of penitence confessing his sin with Bathsheba (See Ps 51).

We have a tendency in this world to get too impressed with ourselves, especially if we have had a little bit of success. Let’s think about that: How do you think your net worth will compare to God’s streets of gold? How do you think what you have created on Earth will compare with what the Creator of the Universe has created? Can your giving even compare to what God has given (His only begotten Son)?

We need to keep things in the proper perspective and be very careful to stay humble. It has been my experience that we can either stay humble, or we will be humbled. Believe me, it is much better to stay humble.