"The Arrogance of Success"

BEWARE of "The Arrogance of Success".

Quickly let me pen down few lines on the above topic; I feel strongly about the above topic, in fact its a topic I remind myself of daily to ensure I don't become lost as a result of my emerging achievements.

The arrogance of success scares me, I say so because I know God hates arrogance, I judge myself daily to ensure I don't fall prey to this evil. There was a story of the rich fool who arrogantly celebrated is farm earning, God demanded of his soul that very night, now that should scare you. 

When you are successful or think you are, its can be a very interesting thing, the problem certainly is not the success but the way we respond to success. Success is a very tricky thing, the moment we achieve, we tend to begin to drift away from the erstwhile humble spirit we once had. In fact we soon forget how low we were before God lifted us up. All of a sudden, We become the standard, nobody knows it better, its either our way or no other way.

The amazing thing about such display of arrogance is that you don't even know you have lost it.

Ok briefly let's take time to read a long scripture, it depicts a similar case but this time a nation that came from a low background or a slave threshold is about to enter into abundance and God deemed it fit to warn them of the result or impending danger of the arrogance of success.


Deuteronomy 8v 11- 20

11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

20 As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God.


When I read that scripture, I replace all the achievements with my dreams and it becomes a direct email from God to me. Its not an old testament warning, its a fresh message for each of us today, all you need do is replace the farms and vines with six figure jobs and an SUV and probably a harvard degree and a pretty wife or handsome man to go with and you see the warning is for people of 2012.

God said elsewhere that his glory would he share with no man, simply put God is a jealous God. Whenever we make ourselves into a god on the things that God freely gave us, it sets us apart and against him and the moment you pitch your tent against God, you begin to fade. Its that simple, God does not have to plan your failure, you just start failing; the reason is simple, the source of what you have is God, when he withdraws his presence from your success, you simply do not have enough fire to keep alive what you are holding unto so its starts falling apart.

This explanation goes for everywhere God has departed from, from king saul to modern day countries that ignore God, any society that turn its back against God never make it far, some times we see them moving around like they have life whereas they are dead corpses parading as elegance.

We are not exempted from the above warning, in fact it is more for us than for unbelievers.  The arrogance of success is the quickest way down the ladder of success.

When God choose Saul as king, he was a nobody, after a while, he felt he could replace Prophet Samuel by performing the functions of the priest. Similarly when the ark of covenant was being moved in 1Chronicles 13v10 Uzzah felt a need to help the ark from falling, God got angry with him and struck him and he died. The problem with arrogance is that if you are not sober and vigilant, you won't know when it would creep into you, multiply and begin to manifest in divers way.

In just a few years, big businesses were reduced to stories told to teenager across Nigeria, not because the economy was so bad but because the owners broke the rules and you break rules when you feel above the law; that's arrogance. Its so easy to trace failed businesses and relationship to arrogance, a case where a lady believe the man that would date her must lay golden eggs, she would end up spending her lifetime single while she prays for God to send the right man. Same goes for the man who believes he must rule a lady with an iron fist, he would end up jumping from lady to lady without knowing why none is willing to commit to him at age 40. The case of arrogance of success is on the front burner and God wants your and I to reassess ourselves and set things right before we step into the next level in life.

What have we that we did not receive of God? When Pilate told Jesus don't you know I have power to set you free? John 19v11 "Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."

The truth is that whatever we have was given to us freely and God expects us to live in humility and not bask in the arrogance of success which certainly would amount to loosing the very thing thay made us proud. So like I said earlier on, the fastest way down the ladder of success is undermine the arrogace of success. Its my prayer that God would instruct and remind us constantly through the holy spirit on the need to shawn arrogance.

Godbless you


Igonoh Godwin
05/08/2012