The devil tempts you to perform for human approval and prove God's promises through your own effort. Instead, recognize your identity in Christ, obey God's direction, and let Him handle promotion. Seeking praise from people leaves you vulnerable to criticism and destroys spiritual confidence.
The devil will pressure you to perform for approval, trying to make you prove what God has already promised. That temptation will never go away, but you can strengthen your resistance against that temptation by defeating it, by resisting it, by responding with the Word, by recognizing that your identity is found in Christ, by recognizing that all you have to do is trust and obey. Follow after what God says. Do the next thing. Let promotion come from God. Stop trying to force doors open. And when you do finally yield in this area and you say, okay, Lord, I recognize this is in me, I want this to be weakened, I want this to go, then as that pressure to perform is weakened, promotion begins to come. Because now you can step into a calling and the pressure thereof won't destroy you. But if all you're ever doing it for is the praise of people, to be seen as spiritual, spiritual, to be looked to as wise, to be looked to as strong, to be perceived as anointed or gifted or charismatic or important, then when we begin to take criticism— and it always comes— when we begin to take criticism for pursuing the will of God, then that pressure will kill us. There's an old saying that goes, if you live for their praises, you'll die by their criticisms.
