Giving Thanks to God is an Antidote to Hubris

Tom Faletti
8 hours ago
6 min read

Everyone – politicians, people in business, and you and me – face the temptation to make ourselves look good and to think that we are solely responsible for who we are. Giving thanks to God can help us gain some perspective and avoid hubris.

A man stands with his eyes closed and his hands together in a prayer position. — Image provided by Wix.

My last post explored how expressing gratitude can change your brain and your life. But there is more.

Specifically giving thanks to God can help us avoid pride. But it needs to be the right kind of thanks.

Giving thanks helps us put things in perspective

Jesus told a story about a man who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11). He then proceeded to list the ways he was better than other people. That’s not the kind of “thanks” I am talking about.

Proper thanks does not puff oneself up. It takes a more humble approach.

This can be hard in the worlds of politics and business, as well as in our own lives.

When he was a U.S. Representative, Dick Durbin once quoted Senator Paul Douglas as having said, “The first casualty of politics is humility.” The public expects their politicians to do great things, so officeholders feel pressure to say, “I did this,” even if the truth is more complicated. Exaggerating your own importance is tempting for everyone, but tooting your own horn seems especially necessary for people who want to be reelected.

People in business face the same temptation, especially in their advertising. It’s not good enough for a restaurant to say: Most people like our chili, and we have many return customers. Instead, it is: The best chili in the world! Corporations play the same game, and the creators of the most successful businesses are often tempted to think that they are the best, the greatest, the smartest.

This can lead to hubris. Hubris is an excessive pride in yourself and the things you have produced, and an overconfidence in your own abilities. Hubris is a risk we all face if we are successful.

It’s hard to be thankful to God when you think you’re so great.

Conversely, giving thanks to God can help us find a proper perspective on our successes.

The humble prayer that says to the Giver of all good things: Thank you for the inspiration I received, seemingly out of nowhere, that got my business started. Thank you for the doors that opened along the way to success. Help me use the gifts you have given me for the good of others.

Humble thanks can help us put things in perspective.

Giving thanks can be an antidote to the hubris of thinking we are self-made

Hubris often appears in the belief that we did it all ourselves, that we lifted ourselves up by our own bootstraps, that we owe our success entirely to ourselves and our own hard work.

The city of Washington, DC, recently invited people who are facing unexpected challenges in paying their bills to come to a center and apply for the city’s emergency rental assistance program. Around 900 people showed up.

One of them was a 36-year-old man named Deon Johnson. Deon had showed such great potential that he was selected for a highly competitive presidential management fellowship. He got a job as a program analyst at the National Institutes of Health. When the Trump Administration came to town, he was illegally laid off. When a federal court ordered the Administration to rehire Deon and others who had been laid off without cause, the Administration complied – and then fired him in July. My local newspaper reported what has happened to Deon since then:

Johnson . . . has applied for about 60 positions at nonprofits and in higher education – the field in which he attained a PhD in 2022. It was further than anyone in his family had gone. He grew up poor, he said, and now, standing for six hours in the cold to apply for government aid, he felt like he was right back where he began. It was “humbling,” he said.

“Having grown up in poverty, getting to upper middle class, going back to poverty, it’s been like … wow,” he said. “Everything turned into a nightmare.” (Meagan Flynn, “Hundreds of struggling renters in nation’s capital line up to ask for help,” The Washington Post, 21 Nov. 2025)

I also moved to Washington early in my career and got a job. And I, too, thought I was on a solid path. But whereas Deon’s dreams were upended due to circumstances beyond his control, I did not get laid off or fired. My boss was a Member of Congress, so every two years I could have lost my job if he was defeated; but it never happened. I got to live a stable life that allowed me to flourish.

Was I better than Deon?

No; I was just more fortunate.

I didn’t create the stability on my path any more than Deon created the roadblock on his. If I were to claim to be a self-made man, I would be a liar.

Hubris often shows up in the belief that you made yourself what you are without any help from anyone else. It assumes that your good fortune was of your own making and ignores the fact that you could have encountered misfortunes that would have put you in a very different place.

When people in business, or politicians, or you or I act like we are self-made and deserve everything we have obtained, we are giving in to hubris.

None of us fully make ourselves. We can’t control the fact that we didn’t get laid off, didn’t get hit by a bus, didn’t get a disabling disease. We can’t control the benefits we received in our upbringing, such as a parent who encouraged us (or goaded us), a teacher who inspired us, a friend who had our back or supported our cause. No one has grown up as an island.

Giving thanks to God acknowledges that there are forces beyond ourselves that have contributed to who we are. As the psalmist says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his mercy endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).

Giving thanks to God can be an antidote to hubris.

How to give thanks to God

You can give thanks to God for any good thing you have experienced. Here are some things you can thank God for, to the extent that you have experienced them:

Give thanks to God for your parents, your family, your spouse or significant other, your children, and whoever nurtures you and looks after you like family.
Give thanks for the friends God has allowed to come into your life, the people who give you support, encouragement, and companionship.
Give thanks for the opportunities God has given you to serve others and do good – in your work, in your family, in your church or community groups, and in opportunities for service.
Tell God how grateful you are for your health, for good food to eat, for a bed and a roof over your head, for indoor toilets, for access to doctors and nurses, for the money you are able to spend on clothes and other necessities.
Thank God for the opportunities you have to buy things you don’t need but enjoy.
Give thanks that you can enjoy times of leisure, entertainment, and rest.
Thank God for the good things in the natural world around you that lift your spirits and point you to the Creator who loves you.
Give thanks to God for your intellect, for your spirit, for your faith, for the positive characteristics of your personality that God has endowed you with and that you have been able to develop.
Give thanks for the sense of morality that lies within you, for those who helped you form your ethical awareness, and for opportunities to live according to your values without being persecuted or penalized for doing so.
And give thanks for the bumps in the road, the interruptions, the detours that have taken you places you never dreamed of that have made you a better and stronger person.
Give thanks whenever you can, for whatever you can, both to God and to others.