1 Peter 4:11 · World English Bible
If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
The trap in speaking well or serving hard is to pocket the credit, to let the self swell as if the words and the strength began there. That quiet theft is the fault, the giver mistaking himself for the source.
From the Sufism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
SUFISM
The trap in speaking well or serving hard is to pocket the credit, to let the self swell as if the words and the strength began there. That quiet theft is the fault, the giver mistaking himself for the source. Every stream forgets it came from a spring, and the forgetting is where pride creeps in.
The cure is to trace each gift back while using it, speaking as though the words were only borrowed and serving on strength known to be lent. Then the doing turns clear as glass, and what shows through is not the doer but the One supplying it, glorified in the very act because the stream finally points home.
Sufism lens
When something you did goes well, where does your mind go first?
The sage does the work and does not lay claim to it, so the work keeps its power. Claiming it is the point where it starts to sour.
The person who thinks they are the author of their own doing is mistaken, since the energy was never theirs to begin with. Act fully, and hand the authorship back.
When you do something well, remember whose equipment you are using. Pride is nothing but a borrower forgetting the loan.
Free · No account needed
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store
Sufism