Why do we get proud when God does something great through us? Is it at its core because we like to take the credit for ourselves? I think that could be one way of seeing it. Another way of seeing it might be this way: men are of little faith. When confronted with a situation/opportunity/etc., we religiously pray that God would use it for His glory, when in all reality, our real desire is so that something good would happen so we wouldn't have to admit to messing up again, and/or that we may be lifted up in the eyes of men. The reasons can go on. So perhaps the prayer is merely a mentally spoken desire addressed to ourselves but tagged with the name "God." We do this maybe because we have more faith in the works or our own hands than in the hand of God. This is due to a belittled view of God. Perhaps I don't believe God works in my personal life, even though I can see that He did in the great Christian men of the past. So we feel alone. We feel the burden layed on ourselves to make the opportunity great. But we still pray, "Dear God, please. . ." We know as a fact that we have no strength, but we don't realize how much God actually does work in our daily lives. He really is real. He really does get deep into our lives. Deeper than we get into them. When we speak with Godly ferver, it really is Him speaking great things, not ourselves. But we, when we speak great things, don't acknowledge that God really does do great things immediately through us. We then perceive our actions as merely our actions. And when the action is great, we think we are great, when it was God working all along. All because we don't see God when He really does work. The memory gets blended with the times when we really did work in our own strength.