I received a gift I never expected... a call that was humbling. I was so grateful. Overwhelmed. Yet, after a while... years... I've noticed an ugliness in my heart revolving around the gift. It's still a great gift but -- in me -- I see the potential to ruin it or it to ruin me!
"...And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign Lord. But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. ..."
Ezekiel 16:14, 15
God is the giver of all good things. But in our brokenness gifts can cause us to stumble.
Pride, arrogance, foolishness.
Deception creeps in: I am the source of my success. We begin to believe we are what we are, not because of a gift, but because of ourselves. Good gifts have the potential to bring out the worst.
Jealousy. Rivalry. Self-centeredness.
We trust the gift and not the Giver.
Such foolish error.
It blinded Samson.
It ruined David's family.
It brought Saul of Tarsus to his knees.
Any gift we've been given can go bad, if we don't recognize that the true gift is the Giver.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Chirst Jesus my Lord,
for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ...
Philippians 3:7, 8
Check your gifts.
Do you have one that's gone bad?
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