If your hope as a Christian is in your giftedness, you’ll think yourself superior to those who aren’t gifted like you, or fall into envy when someone else is gifted in ways you’re not (or in similar but more pronounced ways than you).

If your hope is in your fruitfulness, you’ll be inflated and narcissistic when you’re apparently bearing fruit and devastated when fruit seems meager— and even more so, when you see others bearing great fruit.

If your hope is in Christ alone, if you’re rejoicing that your name is written in heaven by grace alone, your heart and conscience will be free and clear, and you’ll have wisdom to use your gifts to the glory of God, bearing fruit and building up the church with humility and joy for all your days.

In the kingdom of God, sons become sages, not the other way around. - BA Purtle