Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Give Glory To God

"But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them." -- Numbers 20:12

Why do we always blame God when something goes wrong and then boldly step forward when something goes right?

It doesn't matter if it's an illness or a car wreck, a job promotion or a successful diet. If it's good, we take credit. If it's bad, we blame God.

I've been rereading Numbers and I'm at the section where God tells Moses that he will never enter the Promised Land. He and his brother Aaron sinned in two ways. First, God told Moses to speak to a rock and it would provide water for the Israelites. Instead, Moses struck the rock twice. The second sin was even bigger. Moses took credit for the water instead of giving God credit and glory for providing water for the Israelites.

Now, I know it probably seems like a harsh punishment. After all, Moses had been leading those whining Israelites for almost 40 years at this point. No matter what Moses did, no matter what God did, the Israelites complained. Moses was probably tired and irritable. We've all been there before. Nevertheless, God had chosen Moses to lead His people and he set a very bad example.

We have the opportunity to learn from this example. The Israelites wanted water. God provided for them. He deserved to be praised for it. Think about it. There is no way that Moses could have made a rock basically turn into a water well. God did it. And Moses should have made sure that everyone knew God had provided the water.

How often we do the exact same thing. Something wonderful will happen in our lives and we want to rush forward and claim all the credit. If we really thought about it, we would realize all the details that had to come together for that wonderful thing to happen. That's God working in our lives.

When bad things happen, it's because we live in a fallen world. God has given us free will and we frequently make the wrong choices. As do others. All it takes is one person choosing to run a red light to really derail someone else's life. God didn't run that red light. But like any loving Father, He's always there to help us pick up the pieces.

The Bible gives us a wonderful example of what can happen when we don't give God credit for all the wonderful things He does for us. We should learn from it.