Where should we go to get a proper perspective on riches? Negatively there is much to be said about things, but the place to begin is not with a negative but with a positive perspective: All things come from God. God is the Creator. Therefore, possessions are to be received from him with thanksgiving and are to be enjoyed fully as he intended them to be enjoyed. James wrote, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (James 1:17).

I received a letter from a couple who were going to the mission field for the first time. It listed their financial requirements: so much for support, so much for medical expenses, so much for insurance, pension, the cost of operating an automobile, travel to and from the field, overhead for the home office and so on. I was not disturbed by the letter. I was actually quite sympathetic. I knew that the requests were reasonable. Still I could not help contrasting their letter with the Lord’s commands to his disciples when they set out on their first missionary journey.

I return to the disciples, where this week’s lessons began. In the closing days of Christ’s earthly life, he was attempting to prepare them for his departure and instruct them in what they would need to know to function as his disciples after he was gone. They were arguing among themselves about who should be greatest. The reason is that they were thinking of themselves, rather than about him. He was about to make that sacrifice around which the meaning of all reality revolves. The uplifted cross was to be the focal point of history. But the disciples? They were not thinking of that. They were thinking about Christ’s earthly kingdom, and they were jockeying for the most prominent places in it.

Another burden of pride is self-struggle. A fourth burden we are delivered from if we walk in humility is struggle, struggle somehow to "make it" or "gain recognition" in this world. You will understand, I am sure, that I am not encouraging a lazy spirit or an indifferent attitude in Christ’s service. In his service there is always need for hard work, diligence, willingness to suffer, and great perseverance. But that is a different thing from the kind of struggle for self-advancement that flows from pride.

Humility also removes the burden of pretense. The second burden of pride Tozer writes about is the burden of pretense - of pretending to be something we are not and of hiding what we truly are. The man who is moderately successful in business tries to look wildly successful. He is ashamed to be thought of as only a moderate achiever. A person of limited education pretends to be more highly educated than he is and fears to meet a thoroughly educated man. Even if he is well educated, he fears to meet a person who is better educated or to be in a position where the unfavorable comparison shows.