I have heard people say on several occasions that: “He is a self-made man” or “She is a self-made woman.”
Forbes defines “self-made” as someone who built a company or established a fortune on his or her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it.
I love to hear and read stories of how people climbed from “rags to riches” and how they overcame adversity against all odds. So many of us have the potential, but some have not walked into their purpose, for some reason or another.
I have a problem with people thinking that they did it all my themselves, because we can’t do nothing without God, through Jesus Christ. We are absolutely nothing without Him.
We were not made from our own creation. That means that we can’t be self-made. When it comes to God, we are not self-supporting, self-sustaining, self-sufficient, nor self-dependent.
In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he gives a warning that is relevant still today, Paul says, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” - 1 Timothy 6:17.
It is not a sin to have material wealth, it is the high-mindedness that Jesus is concern with. The Bible warns us about this through other related words, such as, haughtiness, arrogance, and pride.
To be proud means to be high in the wrong sense. It means to have an arrogant and exaggerated view of yourself and your abilities. One word for pride comes from the Greek word meaning, “envelope with smoke” or to be “puffed-up”. “High minded, puffed-up, and blowing smoke," you get the picture.
God hates haughtiness and pride! Pride is the nature of God’s enemy and our enemy, the devil. Haughtiness, arrogance, and pride of life are the sins, which led Satan to try to attempt to exalt himself above God, and to rule God’s kingdom. “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” Isaiah 14:13-14.
None of us are self-made in the true sense, but we are all God made. All success comes from God. No one got to be successful all by themselves. Everyone owes someone something, be it your parents, a friend, spouse, teacher, and the list goes on and on.
Whatever success comes our way, we should always take the time to thank God, after all, God allowed it to happen, and God deserves ALL of the credit.
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