Matthew 23:12 “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Last night one of our portfolio companies hit a big funding milestone. The CEO asked me to lead a prayer with the team to give thanks and cover the journey ahead. So I jumped onto the video conference and he opened by saying “John we just want to say thank you for being there for us. We consider you our 6th co-founder, and we would not have been able to be here today without you. We started this fundraise with a prayer and the team thought it’d be great to finish with a prayer too. Could you lead us in thanking God for all He’s done?” I replied “well I appreciate your kind words, but I’m the one who should be thanking you guys. You’re in the trenches working so hard and overcoming all the seemingly insurmountable challenges day in and day out. At best I’m a cheerleader sitting on the sidelines. But as you pointed out, of course, all glory goes to God. So yes let’s pray!” As I began to cover the team, the verse that I got for them was Matthew 23:12. In this world everyone claims credit for themselves and defers blame to others. But God’s desire for his children is to share credit with those who don’t deserve it, and to take blame even when we don’t deserve it. Humbling ourselves doesn’t mean having a lack of confidence. It means having such great confidence that we can sacrifice and love like Jesus did. For if God is for me, who can be against me? “Even as I hear you guys saying all these nice and very undeserved things about me, I just feel like God wants you to know that He’s so proud of you for creating a culture of humility and honoring others. And it’s precisely because you’ve humbled yourselves that He is exalting you. He also wants you to know that this is just the beginning. If you think this is exciting, you’d better buckle your seatbelts for what’s next.” Lord, all glory goes to you. You are our co-founder, Chairman and CEO. Thank you that I don’t need to worry about claiming credit to fight for my next promotion. Because my boss has got my back and already won the battle for me. I commit to humbling myself and honoring those around me today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.