Word of Encouragement (3/12/2021)

We are talking about the importance of proper stewardship of God’s blessing when He answers our prayer lest we turn God’s blessing into a curse. Yesterday, we saw how we can turn God’s blessing into a curse when we make God’s blessing into a means of furthering our selfish greed. We can also do that when we make God’s gracious blessings into a source of our pride.

From Hezekiah’s example, we know how easy it is to forget our humble condition (when we cried out to God) and become proud (when our problems are resolved by the grace of God). One moment, he was weeping bitterly because he was about to die. But as soon as he heard the news that his life was extended for fifteen years, he was boasting of his treasures to the Babylonian envoys.

Did this happen because Hezekiah was worse than others? Even David, known as a man after God’s own heart, was not immune to it. He, too, allowed all the powers and riches he had as Israel’s king to get to his head and committed adultery and murder. So, God sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke him:

“I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house...” (2 Sam. 12:7-10).

We can see how easy it is to take God’s blessings for granted and become proud. That is why the Lord warned the Israelites before they entered the promised land,

“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear” (Deut. 6:10-13).

But we know what happened with Israel. But if a man like David fell into pride, too, is there any hope for us?

Thankfully, we see another path available to us in Paul: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). Here was a man, who did not forget the constant, pervasive reality of God’s grace in his life. How did he manage to do that? Ultimately, it was by the grace of God. But how did God’s grace work in him? This confession comes at the end of Paul’s summary of the gospel: “...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve...” (1 Cor. 15:3-5). It was this gospel he held on to for himself and proclaimed to others.

There is no magic formula to mortify our pride once for all. The temptation is strong to get used to God’s blessings and think that we are entitled to them. We are prone to pride. The only way we can fight it is to remind ourselves of God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ—daily, moment by moment, how we are what we are, and how we have what we have, only by the grace of God. Our pride is strong but God’s grace is even stronger. When we humble ourselves before Him, He will exalt us at the proper time (1 Pet. 5:6). He will bless us, grace upon grace, and from grace to glory!

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