- Joined
- Oct 26, 2007
- Messages
- 12,539
"Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing [was of] fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate [pastry of] fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful, and succeeded to royalty. "Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it [was] perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you," says the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 16:13-14 NKJV
The words above were addressed to a very gifted, very blessed people: the people of God’s chose nation, Israel. It’s a long list of blessings God had poured out on His people. But in the following twenty verses, God chided them because they had somehow forgotten that everything they had was a gift from Him.
This part of Israel’s story should stand as a reminder for us today to heed these words of the apostle Paul: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (I Corinthians 4:7).
Confidence isn’t a bad thing, and an awareness of our strengths and abilities can help us in our work and in our ministries. But those things must be tempered with an awareness that everything we have and everything we are comes from the hand of our generous heavenly Father.
Prayer: Generous Father, it’s easy sometimes for me to forget that everything good about me is because of who You are and not because of anything about me. Please keep me humbler.
The words above were addressed to a very gifted, very blessed people: the people of God’s chose nation, Israel. It’s a long list of blessings God had poured out on His people. But in the following twenty verses, God chided them because they had somehow forgotten that everything they had was a gift from Him.
This part of Israel’s story should stand as a reminder for us today to heed these words of the apostle Paul: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (I Corinthians 4:7).
Confidence isn’t a bad thing, and an awareness of our strengths and abilities can help us in our work and in our ministries. But those things must be tempered with an awareness that everything we have and everything we are comes from the hand of our generous heavenly Father.
Prayer: Generous Father, it’s easy sometimes for me to forget that everything good about me is because of who You are and not because of anything about me. Please keep me humbler.
