On the Day of Atonement, Christians fast to afflict their souls, demonstrating that only when man sees himself in proper comparison to God will he have the right attitude to submit to Him. Fasting puts us in a humble spirit, showing how dependent we are upon God's providence, so we can walk in harmony with Him. When we deprive ourselves of life's necessities, we recognize our reliance on His care. This proper perspective, gained through fasting, prepares us to live humbly before God, allowing His Word and Spirit to work wonders among the people of the world.

Comparing oneself to the greatness of God begins the process of correction in a person. This self-evaluation occurs against God alone and produces humility as pride diminishes. Yielding to the sovereignty of God supplies the proper comparisons that enable wise choices. The ideal of childlike qualities serves as a goal against which one compares oneself in order to work toward that standard. Grasping the sovereignty of God leads to praise of Him as salvation and allows knowledge of Him to produce humility before Him.

God is not simply a greater man. His mind's capacity so far exceeds ours that no comparison is more apt than the one He Himself gives. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. If we compare the purity and extent of God's greatness to our humanity with all its physical, spiritual, moral and ethical frailties, we must recognize how ignorant, shortsighted, weak in character, unfeeling, uncaring, hard, bitter, complaining and self-centered we are. We need a specialized kind of help, and its only source if we truly want to change is God. Surely, if we are open to it, this humbles us.

The material stresses that any attempt to compare ourselves to God must begin by rejecting the notion that He is merely a greater man. His mind operates on a plane so far above human capacity that no adequate parallel exists except the one He Himself supplies, namely that His thoughts stand as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth. This infinite distance means God never lacks foresight, wisdom, or awareness of events, nor does He require human prompting to act. Because His plans already reflect perfect goodness and unerring judgment, prayer cannot serve to alter His mind or supply information He lacks. Instead, the recognition of this disparity forces the one who prays to acknowledge personal shortsightedness, weakness, and dependence. Such acknowledgment produces humility, which in turn opens the way for submission to His will and the reception of the very qualities He desires to impart. The same contrast therefore shapes the entire approach to prayer: it is never an exercise in directing God but a daily means of aligning the human will with the divine purpose already fixed from the beginning.

The theme of comparing ourselves to God serves as the mechanism through which several vital Christian character traits are produced, all stemming from a deep acceptance of God's sovereignty. This process begins when a person genuinely comes to see God, even without literal physical sight, through diligent study and application of His Word. The reactions of biblical figures who glimpsed God's glory illustrate this principle powerfully: Job repented in dust and ashes after hearing God speak; Isaiah cried out about his uncleanness upon seeing God's throne; and Daniel fainted dead away at his vision. These responses demonstrate that grasping God's true greatness inevitably and positively disturbs one's sense of personal worth. This comparison directly produces the fear of God, not as servile terror but as worshipful admiration mixed with awe at His intelligence, creativity, and mercy. Since human nature is naturally enmity with God, this fear must be learned through relationship with Him, and it becomes foundational to a life of faith. Romans 3:18 identifies the absence of this fear as the root cause of humanity's corrupted heart and conduct, since without it, godly knowledge and wisdom cannot grow. From this comparison flows humility, the second fruit. As one's sense of self diminishes against God's overwhelming glory, pride, which drives man's natural self-focus, begins breaking down. This directly counters the problem exemplified by Pharaoh, whose declaration "I do not know the Lord" reveals that ignorance of God produces irreverence and disobedience, while knowing Him produces humility and submission. Understanding God's sovereignty removes every ground for human boasting, since salvation itself comes by grace rather than personal contribution. The third fruit, obedience, emerges as humility supplants pride. Recognizing our practical nothingness compared to God creates a childlike dependency, illustrated in Jesus' teaching that greatness in the Kingdom belongs to those who humble themselves like children, marked by easy dependence, trust, and awareness of weakness. This childlike submission becomes the model for how converted adults must relate to God. Finally, comprehending God's sovereignty produces resignation, an uncomplaining endurance rather than defeat. Since God owns us entirely and never afflicts us beyond what we deserve or can bear, complaints and fears diminish as we recognize His constant, loving oversight. Figures like Job, Eli, and Aaron modeled this acceptance of God's will without murmuring, and Jesus Himself submitted perfectly to affliction He did not deserve. Together, these four fruits, fear of God, humility, obedience, and resignation, arise from rightly comparing our puny lives and characters to God's glory, forming the character growth necessary to endure coming trials and potentially perform the exploits foretold for those who truly know their God.

Reflecting on the sovereignty of God naturally leads to a comparison between human limitation and divine perfection, and this comparison is illustrated through the experiences of Job and Isaiah. Job, described by God Himself as unmatched in righteousness on earth, was nonetheless brought face to face with God's own words through eighty-three unanswerable questions concerning creation and power. Confronted with real holiness, unlimited intelligence, and boundless mercy, Job's response was not pride in his own righteousness but self-abhorrence: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." His flaw was not sin but a failure to grasp God's absolute right to do as He pleases with His creation, even a righteous man. Isaiah's experience parallels this. Upon seeing a vision of the Lord high and lifted up, surrounded by seraphim, he immediately declared, "Woe is me! I am undone... for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." Both men, though mature and righteous, were humbled to the point of feeling filthy and worthless simply by glimpsing God's holiness in contrast to their own nature. This reaction is presented not as psychological guilt or mental illness, but as a balanced, accurate evaluation of the self when measured against divine perfection. Anyone who truly knows and loves God understands that forgiveness removes the burden of guilt; yet a genuine perception of God's sovereignty still produces a profound recognition of human smallness in comparison to Him. This recognition is essential because human beings are naturally filled with a sense of their own importance—pride and rebellion—and the only corrective is to see oneself rightly in relation to God's perfection. Ultimately, this comparison forces a choice: one will either glory in God or in self, will either serve Him or serve self, for no one can serve two masters. This theme connects directly to the broader teaching on God's sovereignty and its intended fruit in believers. Seeing oneself accurately against God's holiness is the foundation from which humility grows, and humility in turn produces the fear of God—a deep, reverential awe rather than servile terror or careless familiarity. This fear of God becomes the beginning of wisdom, which is defined as right application, leading to implicit obedience. Jesus Christ Himself modeled this pattern perfectly: though He was the One through whom creation came into being, He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death, consciously choosing submission out of reverence and love for the Father rather than blind compulsion. Thus, comparing oneself to God is not meant to produce despair but transformation. It is the starting point of a chain: recognition of God's sovereignty leads to humility, humility leads to fear of God, fear leads to wisdom and obedience, obedience leads to godly character, and ultimately to complete resignation to God's will, thankfulness for His involvement in one's life, and adoring worship of Him as God. This progression mirrors the experiences of Job and Isaiah, whose confrontation with divine holiness became the very means by which they were strengthened, refined, and drawn into a right relationship with their Creator.