Friday, January 30, 2009

In Lifting Up Thyself

Proverbs 30:32 KJV
If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
As easy as it is to do, it is still a foolish thing to lift ourselves instead of Jesus Christ. As men, our natural tendency is to make ourselves gods.
We want to express our own knowledge.
We want to be rewarded for our own efforts
We want praise for our own skills


And whenever God blesses us and uses us in some fashion the common tendency of the flesh is to take credit for it on our own. We might even says something like, "To God be the glory." But we have still reveled in the praise delivered. How foolish it is to lift ourselves! Only Christ deserves such glory. To take that which belongs to the Lord is the utmost in folly.

He uses the phrase "...lay thine hand upon thy mouth." As a studious person or a thoughtful person might place his hand on his mouth as he ponders a thought or hears the words of another, so we are wise to give good consideration of our own motives and thoughts. If we design to promote ourselves or if we entertain those evil thoughts of others God's Word convicts us to lay our hand upon our mouth and rethink those things.

Lift up Christ. Lift up only Christ. Let us not concern ourselves with thoughts of ourselves and by no means allow our minds to be used to think evil of others. Only think of Christ and how He may be exalted.

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