Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Give God Credit

Then he said to me, “This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD Almighty.”

-- Zechariah 4:6

“Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them -- not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God.” -- Hosea 1:7

When something wonderful happens in your life, who gets credit? Do you pat yourself on the back for a job well done? Or do you get down on your knees and praise God for blessing you?

It’s human nature to want to take credit for everything good in our lives and to blame someone else -- frequently God -- when something goes wrong. Of course, it doesn’t work that way. We have no success without God’s blessing. But we’d prefer not to think about that.

We want to believe that we control our own destiny. That we determine our outcome. That we can achieve all our goals without help from anyone. Sounds good. And, yes, hard work and seizing opportunities are a wonderful way to head down that road to success. So long as you don’t hit a detour.

You know about detours. They’re those things that really interrupt your life when you least expect it. Like a job layoff. A cancer diagnosis. A divorce. A car wreck. I could go on and on. Many hardworking people have watched their lives disintegrate through no fault of their own.

That’s where God comes in. See, God is in control. He can fix things. He can carry you through things. He can even keep things from happening, like when you really mess up and don’t get the punishment you deserve. God did that when He sent Jesus to die for our sins. That should have been you and me on that cross. Somehow, thank you seems inadequate.

We can do nothing without God. He, on the other hand, can do anything. He can take the weakest, most inept person and accomplish great things. And He can allow the smartest, most charismatic person fail spectacularly. Never, ever believe that your success is something you created on your own. Because none of us are anything without God.