Today's Reading
1 Chronicles: David faced a common temptation for leaders, that of looking at the size and breadth of his territory and attempting to find his identity there. It's always dangerous to think our personal worth is in what we have acquired or what we have accomplished. That pride often leads to some type of destruction.
Romans: people with truly humble hearts have a "default position." To them, God is God. Always. If a wrong has taken place, it was not God who did it. Even though God had transform some of our sinful acts and bring good from them, (like the illegitimate baby who grew up to be a gifted evangelist) it still takes the power of Christ's blood to pay for our sins. We are not to excuse them, but to confess and forsake them.
Psalms: at various times in my life, it seems like evil is overcoming good in our world. BUT, God will ultimately prevail!
Proverbs: with today's understanding that "all men are created equal", I find verse 10 difficult. Anyone can become a leader and princes have no more rights than slaves. It wasn't that way, though, when this verse was penned.
What are your insights today?
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It's not just leader who face this temptation. I think we're all tempted to look around us and say "See what I've made! Let's quantify it so all of history can be impressed with me." Of course God wants us to find our identity in Him, but what does that really mean on a practical level? In this performance/results oriented culture, how do we avoid the temptation to find our identity in our worldly success?????
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure, Julie, that we can fully "avoid the temptation", especially if this is an area of weakness for us. What we can do is keep giving credit to God for any success, take responsibility for our failures, have compassion for those who don't have the same advantages, and ask God to forgive us when we stumble into (even attitudinal) sin. I have discovered that, as we get older, less and less of our identity is from what we possess or have accomplished.
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