--The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name."
And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

"Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

"Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."-- Luke 10:17-20

In my own walk I've looked back at the places I've come from, spiritually speaking. Reading my old journals and blogs makes me cringe because of the pride dripping off of nearly every word. I never even thought of myself as a prideful person, but it was there nonetheless.

I wanted so badly for others to look at me, me, me, the things I was doing for the Lord, how righteous I could be, etc. And it reflected in my writing.

Almost everything I did while I was in Chi Alpha was with tainted motives. If I could go back and do it over again I would do everything in a drastically, drastically different way.

Many times my boasting came masquerading as praise reports. 'Praise the Lord!-- I witnessed to 10 people yesterday.' 'I read the Bible for 2 hours today!' 'I have gone to group prayer 5 times this week. God is so good at giving grace... (translation; I am so good at being obedient)', and so on.

I think it's important how Jesus responds to their reports of the demons being subjected to them. He talks about Satan falling from Heaven. How does that fit? Isaiah 14:12-15 is commonly attributed to Lucifer before he became satan. It speaks of his pride.

Proverbs 16:18 says that pride comes before the fall. I just want to encourage everyone that we should always be wary of it, because pride more often than not hides itself as works-based Christianity or even self-pity and low self-esteem.

--When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.-- Matthew 6:5-6

So the next time you do a good deed for the Lord, praise the Lord! But maybe hold on to sharing what you did unless the Holy Spirit moves you to encourage somebody else who needs to hear it at that exact time. The Lord delights in rewarding us, His children, in secret.

It cultivates intimacy in each of our Christian walks when we live for an audience of One.

just a sidenote; I'm not downing group prayer. There is power when believers gather together and pray. But even there is another failing of mine when in XA-- in group prayer many times I wanted to pray things that would sound good to others. I was not truly living for an audience of One.