Are you God-Made or Self-Made?

‘Who you attribute your success to largely determine who you become and what runs your life. Being God-Made makes you thankful & humble, knowing you are but a product of grace and favour.’ By Ekow Mensah

After all the hard work, time, energy, investments, dedication and sacrifice you put into becoming who you are today in business, career, academics or life in general, you are tempted to think that you are truly self-made and you deserve all you’ve got. Why not; you did it, you made it happen, you put in the work, you got the certificates, you secured the job, and you worked daily to be where you are now in business, so of course you are self-made.

With this phrase, self-made, being used often in most motivational speeches and in association with success, wealth and power, especially by individuals who did not get the privilege of inheriting what they have but built it from the ground up, it’s not surprising that most people will associate with it as well and for very good reason for which I am not here to condemn.

What we need to be mindful of though is that without some fundamental things such as the ability to learn, understand, remember, apply, breathe, walk, talk, sleep, wake up and even dream, we will not be able to pursue or succeed in any endeavour worthwhile enough to call ourselves self-made. These fundamental things are gifts of good freely given to enable us pursue the things that give us success and fulfilment.

The gift of sleeping and waking up in good health, the gift of remembering (one precious gift we take for granted), the gift of emotions; enabling us to feel and to interact with people, the gift of dreaming and being enthusiastic enough about it to pursue it until you succeed, the gift of passion and grit, the gift of people and relationships, the gift of family, the gift of friends and most importantly the gift of time and life.

In closely examining all the gifts that we have been freely given by God and how we hardly deserve any of them, it is out of place for us to think, for one moment, that we are self-made, that we made everything happening to us happen and that we deserve all we’ve got. Indeed, we are but a product of grace, mercy and favour from God.

Not even knowing when our life can be taken away from us is enough to make us humble and thankful every day that we are given the opportunity to wake up and pursue our dreams, goals and desires. So next time you are tempted to think of yourself as self-made or someone who refers to you as such, be quick to remind them that you are God-made and He alone deserves the glory!