Broken People vs. Proud People (Psalm 51)

Broken People vs. Proud People

Nancy Leigh DeMoss contrasts broken people and proud people. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. (Psalms 51:17) This list is from a talk given to the leadership of Campus Crusade for Christ.

See if you can identify yourself in either or both lists:

Proud People	Broken People
Focus on the failure of others	Overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need
A critical, fault finding spirit; looking at everyone else’s faults with a microscope, but their own with a telescope	Compassionate; can forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven
Self-righteous; look down on others	Esteem all others better than themselves
Independent, self sufficient spirit	Have a dependent spirit; recognize a need for others
Have to prove they are right; Claim rights; have a demanding spirit	Willing to yield the right to be right
Self protective of their time, their rights and their reputation	Self-denying
Desire to be served	Motivated to serve others
Desire to be a success	Motivated to be faithful and to make others a success
Have a drive to be recognized and appreciated	Have a sense of their own unworthiness; thrilled that God would use them at all
Wounded when others are promoted and they are overlooked	Eager for others to get the credit, rejoice when others are lifted up
Have a subconscious feeling that this ministry is privileged to have me and my gifts	Heart attitude is, “I don’t deserve to have a part of this ministry”
Think of what they can do for God	Know they have nothing to offer God except Jesus flowing through their broken lives

"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." James 4:6

Which of these do you identify with?