I’ve had another epic FAIL this week. A friend of mine has this annual ‘to do’ in their hometown every year. It’s quite the production. Well attended, growing every year and a blessing to many people. This person has a heart of gold. I’ve been planting ‘God seeds in their life as slowly as I can over the years… which for this pushy broad has been quite the challenge. But last week this person honored me in a HUGE way. They were asked to say grace at the annual event and they asked me to help. I was tickled pink. I prayed about it, and wrote a “grace” prayer that I believed was both honoring of the event and of God AND would be something that could come out of their mouth without them sounding preachy. It’s a real task to put words into someone else’s mouth and be confident that God and the person speaking will be honored. Well… I pulled it off. It was short, sweet, inspired and well… near perfect. (if I do say so myself! lol) They graciously thanked me for the prayer over messenger, but as I looked at the FB news feed about the event, a lot of people were congratulating them on their brilliant delivery of the prayer... of MY WORDS. Yup… pride reared its ugly head. All these compliments were piling up for the person saying the words…those should have been my compliments. I know… even typing it, I feel petty. Oh PRIDE… how I hate thee! So… biblical reference for this epic fail in my life this week… Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.” (Yah... Im not even touching Pride cometh before a fall) My excellent works are to bring God Glory!! Not ME! Even if God chooses to use my work to let someone else shine… that others might glorify our heavenly father… that’s perfectly okay in God’s plan. As I thought about it, I realized that EVERYTHING I do is supposed to bring Him glory… not bring me glory. I was created in His image to bring Him glory. My skills and talents were gifted to me to… bring Him glory. Wow. Pride of authorship may be the least of my problems. Growing up, I remember having it drilled into me that I needed to take pride in what I did. Do a good job no matter how you felt about a job. Always leave a place cleaner than you found it. Unknowingly by my parents, that relatively harmless statement is just a slight twist of God’s truth, but is used ALL the time in the Western world. We’re actually called to do everything with excellence because He is excellent, and by doing things with excellence, we bring Him glory. See the slight twist there… Taking pride in our work is tooting our own horn. Doing things with excellence is giving glory to God when we thank Him for the abilities He’s given us. When we do a good job at something, and we don’t take the credit, God is glorified. It’s the difference between pride and humility. Thankfully, God gives us opportunity to learn the lessons over and over till we get it right. Pride… I’m recognizing you in the smallest of details. You’re time of stronghold in my life is coming to an end in Jesus name!!!
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:22:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015