A wise philosopher, wishing to teach his students about the pitfalls of pride, said, "When a king removes his crown for rest, he puts it on a nail and not on a human head. This is because a person seeing that the crown would fit his head, would strut, start to feel he was fit to be a king, and little by little would feel more fit to be a king than the king himself. But, a nail remains a nail."
Jesus told about a very foolish and proud Pharisee. He had the crown of religion on his head and was bragging to God (Luke 18:10-12). He told God he was glad he was not as other men. In essence he said, "God, you really ought to be very proud of me. There are so many things I don't do." Jesus said that God did not even listen to this man's praying.
We must learn quickly there is no good in us. We are only righteous as Christ makes us righteous. The moments we spend in prayer bragging about what we are or what we have done are just as worthless as speaking the words into midair. We must remember we do not have our crowns yet. When we get to heaven, they will be distributed, but we probably won't even want to wear them then. Rather, we will want to cast them at the feet of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”
Luke 18:11 NASB
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