11/30/2025
God works within us every day. He brings us to the doorstep of His will and then perfects us as our efforts join with His in accomplishing it. However, none of our achievements are possible without His efforts in us, and none is possible by our own doing. So, when His will is done in some manner how do we respond to others as they acknowledge it in gratitude or amazement? Do we take the credit ourselves, or humbly give him all the glory for what His grace has brought forth by our obedience?
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV
I was reading my devotional this morning, and in it, Pastor Oswald Chambers made a couple of points I found myself guilty of; not out of a desire to increase myself, but quite the contrary, in an attempt at lessening my role in God’s work and in an attempt at humbling myself. Here is a scenario, how would you react?
I was a member of a long standing, and iconic, three-man intercessory prayer team at my church, and God’s hand was all over making me a part of it, yet when asked about being chosen by Him, I would often respond with what I thought was humility. I would say things like “I am unworthy, and I really don’t know why I was chosen” or sometimes “I feel so out of place with Jack and John, they are amazing men of God.” This might sound as though I am taking a humble stance to you, but to God it is implying that He was incompetent in selecting me for this calling. Pastor Oswald Chambers describes our responding in this way like this...
“The way we talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us.” - Oswald Chambers
God didn’t make a mistake in choosing me for the prayer group... nor when He chooses you for the calling He desires you to work with Him in achieving. He didn’t overlook some glaring fault in us that would make us unworthy. If anything, God chose us because of our faults, and during our work with Him he intends to address them with; He will extract them from us in some manner. You see, His desire isn’t limited to identifying who we are, no, He sees from the very beginning who we can and will become as He perfects us. My response to the praise of others should have been something like this... “I am so blessed to be a member of this team, and God uses us each of us for His greater purposes.”
People are healed, lives are changed, God’s will is being done in powerful ways... so who are we to belittle this by implying that He made a mistake in choosing us as the implement of His will? We should be thanking and praising Him before the world... always.
The second way that I was convicted by my devotional reading this morning was by denying my status in faith. Do you do this as well? When someone comments that you are a saint, do you deny it? Do you respond, “Oh no, that isn’t so, I am just an ordinary Christian man (or woman) who struggles in my faith every day.”? On the surface this sounds humble to others, and in our own eyes we might think we are humbling ourselves too, but in truth we are claiming that God’s work in us hasn’t met with success. Chambers described this denial in no uncertain terms when he wrote:
“”Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.” Say that before God; and it means - “No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.” That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God It is an attitude of defiance.” - Oswald Chambers
God has been working in, and with, each of us towards achieving our righteousness... don’t deny His good work. Despite all our shortcomings, some of them being incredibly ugly, He has steadily been working to perfect us through Jesus.
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV
The proper way to respond to such accolades regarding our faith is like this... “The Lord has been good to me, and every day I praise Him in prayer for His many good works and blessings in my life.” Then perhaps you might go on to say, “I see He is working similarly in your life as well.” God doesn’t fail in us, nor in others. Even in those times when we are uncertain of the outcome He continues the process of our refinement... don’t deny Him, or Jesus Christ, before others; on the contrary, encourage them as they look at how He has used or blessed you in your life and faith.
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for all the ways you have, and are, at work in my life, and for the righteousness you have lead me in as I strive to please you. I thank you for the way you use me, and for the way you increase my faith along the way. Help me Father to praise you always, and not to mistakenly deny your good work in me, or to glorify my own humility as I speak with others about you. Let me forever lift you up before the world in word and deed, and in so doing, give me the wisdom it takes to differentiate between my true humility and selling short your good works in me. Let me not boast in myself, but always in you, and never let my actions or words lessen your success in my life, and faith. I pray, Lord, that your grace, perfection, and good work are always on my lips, and that others will thus see you there. Praised be your name Abba as I acknowledge who I have become at your hand and by your mercy and grace through my Savior Jesus Christ.
“My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.”
Psalm 34:2 ESV
“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV
Amen!
Rich Forbes