Proclaiming Christ and Him Crucified

This is a continuation of my last post on The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God.

I ended the last post with a question: will what I’m doing help in proclaiming Christ and him crucified? I would like to offer a few insights into how I know whether or not my work is proclaiming Christ.

1. How do I respond to success?
   When I have done well, where do my thoughts go? Do I think about how good of a worker I am? Do I seek recognition from others? If my thoughts are centered on myself when I succeed, I am being prideful. Our success is not meant to bring praise upon ourselves, but it is meant to bless others and bring glory to God. We are not blessed so we can have, we are blessed so we can give.
2. How do I respond to failure?
   What about when I fail? Do I try and cover it up? Do I blame it on someone else? If my failures do not lead me to seek help and admit my shortcomings, I am being selfish. My desire to look good even though I am not doing a good job is pride and is not characteristic of a Christ-centered life.
3. Am I always trying to do better?
   God is glorified when we are both content with our work and when we strive to do better. The reason we try to do better is so that those who benefit from our work get the best we can give.
4. How are my relationships with others?
   Do I find myself having to constantly apologize to others? I may think I’m doing everything right, but if my relationships with others are fragile and in constant need of repairing, I’m probably not doing a good job of demonstrating Christ’s love. This is one of the most dangerous forms of pride because a person can go through life without realizing he is destroying the relationships with everyone around him.

This could be a much longer list, but these are areas that I personally try to keep myself in check on. If you have any suggestions, I welcome your feedback.