In our OT passage today we see a familiar lesson - the need to persevere to the end, and to acknowledge God as our source of strength.
King Uzziah pleased God during his early years as king and was a successful warrior and city builder. But he developed a prideful attitude because of his great success - he even tried to perform the priests' duties, something that was in direct disobedience to God.
We need to always maintain an attitude of thankfulness and gratefulness for all that God has done for us, acknowledging that it is God who has done it and God alone who deserves the glory. We are the clay, He is the potter. We should be thankful that God allows us to be used in His service, instead of living like God should be honored we bothered to do something for Him.
Who is getting the credit for our successes? Us, or God?
I read a section from my Life Application bible about our NT passage that I hadn't considered before....
The disciples were jealous. Nine of them together had been unable to drive out a single evil spirit (9:40), but when they saw a man who was not one of their group driving out demons, they told him to stop. Our pride is hurt when someone else succeeds where we have failed, but Jesus says there is no room for such jealousy in the spiritual warfare of his kingdom. Share Jesus' open-arms attitude to Christian workers outside your group. Rejoice when they are able to bring people to Christ.
There is no room for jealousy in our relationships with each other. It is proof that our focus has shifted away from God and onto ourselves. Again, who is getting the credit for our successes?
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: 2 Chronicles 28-29; Luke 10:1-24
3 comments:
A good reminder that we should be thankful that we can serve God, and not to think that God should be thankful that we're serving Him
Pride lead to Uzziah's downfall, and will do the same to us. When we have a self exalting attitude we remove God as the centre of all things and deny Him the glory that is due to Him. A proud person does not feel the need for a saviour, and therefore removes the desire to trust in God.
The only boasting we should do, is in the Lord Jesus and in His cross.
This stood out for me: 45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
Kiandra is very reluctant to ask for help from her teachers in her classes. This has been a common report card comment over the years. I think there is a feeling of weakness when we admit we don't understand ...our pride gets in the way of truly understanding things because we are afraid to admit we don't know something. May we seek the answers and clarity for the things we don't understand.
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