Friday, March 31, 2017
In David’s prayer of repentance to God, he included this eternal truth: “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.” (Psalm 51:6) A more modern bible version says it this way: “You want me to be completely truthful. So teach me wisdom.” We all have people in our lives who seem to have an answer to every question. Common sense alone should tell us that that is not possible. The only One who knows everything is God. I am not a psychologist and don’t know why people are like that. Maybe they want to appear to be knowledgeable to others or maybe they are just full of themselves. Nevertheless, God wants us all to be completely honest. It is totally acceptable if we confess from time to time that we don’t know or have an answer for a question that is asked of us.
With that in mind, I’ve been in the gospel ministry for over forty years and yet there are many bible verses I don’t fully understand. Here is one of them: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27) One of my guesses concerning this verse is that there is a little bit of God in every human being which is one reason that, from time to time, even normally wicked people do kind things. When God was in the process of creating the earth, several times we read that He saw it and said that it was good.
I know I have done this often, perhaps you have too. I am referring to doing a certain chore or task, like working the yard for example, and after it is all done, come back and admire the work I just did. Is that not what God did in creation? However, here’s where the tricky part enters the picture: We must not think that nobody else can do as good a job as us, and we must not boast about it to others. We must always keep in mind that if it were not for the Lord helping us, we could have never accomplished what we just did. I feel slightly uneasy every time I hear someone trying to take all the credit for themselves. It happens almost every day at work or at home, even preachers do it. I’ve heard some of them say from the pulpit something like : “People, get ready. I’ve got a message today that is going to knock your socks off.” Perhaps they don’t realize that they are, in fact, robbing God of His glory. Most of the time, that fantastic sermon that was announced was not all that great in the end, probably because God was not given the glory. It is not a sin to admire the things we do, as long as we give God the glory for it. In closing, did you hear about the fellow who proudly proclaimed, “I used to be very conceited but now that I belong to Jesus, I’m probably the nicest guy you will ever meet” ? Besides chuckling a bit, I bet some of you are thinking “Hey, I know somebody like that!”
God’s word for today: (Revelation 4:11) “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.”
