“And to him they had regard…” Acts 8:11, KJV

Not long ago Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, posted an entry to his blog entitled, “Howard Stern’s Admission.” In the entry Daly cited a recent Rolling Stone article in which Stern admitted, “The curse is I take it so seriously. I gotta know, do you think I did a good show and are you satisfied? That’s the neurosis and that’s the source of all problems for me.”

What was Stern admitting? He was admitting that he is addicted to the approval of other people. The source of Stern’s neurosis is the innate human desire to be loved, which is a desire we all share. At a healthy level, there is nothing wrong with this desire. For many, though, this desire has reached the level of neurosis, as it has for Stern.

The struggle to be significant infects Christians just as it does non-Christians. What Christians often fail to recognize, however, is that when we struggle to be significant, we are really trying to feed a hunger we have for the praise of other people. And this hunger for the praise of other people is a hunger to feed our pride, which is sin in God’s eyes.

In Acts 8 Simon the sorcerer bewitched the people of Samaria for one reason: so that the people of Samaria would hold him in high regard. In the passage we learn that Simon was saved under the preaching of Philip. Soon after Philip’s visit, Peter and John visited Samaria and laid hands on the converts so that they might receive the Holy Ghost. When Simon saw the power of God descend upon the converts, he offered money to Peter and John so that he, too, might have that power. Why did he want this power so badly? Simon, though saved, still harbored in his heart a desire to be significant, to be worshiped by others as he had been before. Peter harshly rebuked Simon, admonishing him to, “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.” (Acts 8:22, KJV)

We need to realize that when we give place to the desire to be significant, we are attempting to steal God’s glory for ourselves. We want praise, and we want worship, all for the purpose of feeding our pride. When we seek praise for ourselves rather than praise for God, we are guilty of the very sin that caused Satan’s downfall! As God teaches us in Isaiah 14:12-14, the reason Lucifer was cast out of Heaven was because he wanted to be like God Himself, receiving the praise of all creation.

When we struggle to be significant, we need to realize that doing so is not only unhealthy, it is sinful. The next time this desire surfaces, repent and pray God that the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee!