1 Cor 1:30-31 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Human pride and boasting are really amazing. God does give assorted abilities to people, and some of those are quite remarkable. With those abilities, people do all sorts of things, some of them quite praise-worthy, at least in our eyes. However, the moment we forget that it is God who has made all of it possible, we lose most of the benefit. It is at times laughable to see people trying to leave God out of the equation, but it is also quite sad. Paul, to his blessing and ours, realized that all he had came from God and was to go back to God in obedience and praise. However, he didn’t have an easy road to get to that settled understanding. As a star pupil of Gamaliel, he was quite full of himself and was quite active in persecuting the early Church, until God quite literally knocked him off of his high horse. (Acts 9) One of the chief things he had to learn in the next few years after that was humility, and God arranged the necessary circumstances for that. Before he died, he had come to the place where he could say that everything apart from knowing Christ was junk, when compared to the glory of fellowship with the Son of God. (Philippians 3:7-11) The more we cling to this, that, or the other point of pride, the less we are able to receive the true riches that are found in Christ Jesus alone.

I have fought with pride all my life. It seems like I was blessed with everything but athletic ability, and in retrospect it is amazing to me that I was so conceited about things that I had received. Gratitude is appropriate, but not pride. One of the most convicting verses in the whole Bible for me is Luke 12:48. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” I have abilities in a wide variety of areas, and what have I done with them? God is my judge, but to me it feels like, not much. I have an IQ of something over 150, but it was very liberating when God really got through to me, not so many years ago, that He’s smart and I’m not. There is far, far more that I don’t know than I do know, and far, far more that I can’t do than I can, but God has no such limitations. When and if I am totally yielded and obedient to Him, He can do remarkable things through me. When I’m trying to be in control, wielding instead of submitting the gifts He has given me, I make a total mess of things. As He told me a few years ago, I need to rest, relax, and rejoice. Only then will I fulfill the role He has for me in His kingdom, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. As you know, I woke up this morning and was unable to go back to sleep because of all the negative things running through my mind. I’ve still got lots of room to grow in trusting You and releasing things to You. Thank You for all You allow me to experience to help me along that path. May I be fully available to You, held back neither by pride nor by unbelief, so that all of Your purposes for me may be fulfilled for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!