Do you ever berate yourself in your internal dialogue for your faults and mistakes with statements such as, how could you have been so stupid? Do you make the same comments to your friends about their mistakes? You understand the importance of being gracious and accepting toward other people. Do you understand the same principle with regard to yourself? You know that other people have their limitations. It would be an expression of pride to assume that you don’t have any of your own. You should not dismiss your shortcomings, but neither should you be surprised or devastated by them. If you can be gracious as a friend to others, be gracious as a friend to yourself. 

You know intuitively that fear is bad and you have support for this in scripture. Have you seen bumper stickers saying ‘No Fear’? It is easy to put on a bumper sticker. Do you think that those who do so have been tested so they can speak this from experience? Do you think they understand that it is perfect love that casts out fear? This isn’t something that can be known second hand or by abstraction. My apostles understood this because of their direct experience with perfect love. They proclaimed the gospel without fear even though they knew they were risking their lives and most lost them. Those who are perfected in love, love not their lives to the death. 

Do you believe in the principle of giving credit where it is due? Do you understand that it is all due to me? My word poses the question, what do you have that you did not receive, and the implied answer is nothing. My apostles worked miracles and those who saw them wanted to honor them as gods. They insisted that they were just men and protested to the point of rending their garments. If you understand that you can of yourself do nothing, then how do you confer the honor on me with true rather than false modesty? If you are led by the Spirit to do the works, then the same leading will show you how to transfer the glory to me. The job isn’t done until then. 

Do you resent having to have a job? Some people misinterpret the opening passages of the Bible and consider the need to work to be a curse. The serpent was cursed and the requirement of work was imposed on man, but this is not a curse. Do you see how it brings about spiritual development even in those who are not seeking it? Keeping a job requires you to be a servant to your manager and to your customers, being obedient, gracious, and helpful. These are desirable spiritual qualities whether you were seeking them when you applied for the job or not. Do you see how it is easier to be a difficult eccentric if you are unemployed? Look at your job as a means of spiritual growth as well as income.