Humble yourselves feeling very insignificant in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you He will lift you up and make your lives significant. – James 4:10, Amplified Bible (AMP)

The desire to be significant is what drove Satan to sin against God. Later, Satan used this same desire to tempt Eve into sinning as well. Since the very beginning, it is this desire to be significant – to do things our own way, to be in charge – that has driven a wedge between God and His creation.

As is the case with most things, God’s ways of obtaining our hearts’ desires aren’t anything like we think they should be. Our human minds consider significance to be something we must snatch on our own through self-promotion, self-interest, and self-actualization (realizing and pursuing one’s full potential). Although trying to pursue significance through selfish effort can produce results, such results, like those produced by all sin, last only for a season. Just ask the myriad of movie stars, music stars, etc. whose fame came and went in a flash of blazing glory. The phrase “fifteen minutes of fame” was born for a reason – significance in man’s eyes doesn’t last that long.

To be significant forever, we have to stop trying to bring attention to ourselves. Instead, we need to bring attention to God. When we engage in God-promotion, God-interest, and God-actualization (realizing and pursuing God’s full potential in using us for His glory), then we not only attain biblical humility; we also attain eternal significance. Others on this planet may or may not recognize our eternal significance, and that is no matter. This life is like a vapor anyway, so why be troubled about what smoke thinks about us? Instead, we should be concerned about what God thinks about us. If we do, and if we act as if God is the only one we care about impressing, then we won’t ever have to worry again about being significant.