Monday Reading: Ecclesiastes 7:14-17
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7:16
16 Do not be righteous over much, neither make yourself over wise; why destroy yourself?
Devotion:
There cannot be a person who is too righteous or a person who is too wise but there can be those that appear to be too righteous or too wise. Once again we see how words can be taken out of context and that seems to be one of the central goals of society – trying to trip others up because of parts of what they have said or done. We have multi-million dollar law suits going on in courts where large companies are fighting each other because of the most trivial (it seems) of ideas and designs. But that is man, that is the way that man thinks and works – not toward the high calling of God anymore, but to the lifting up of himself in God’s stead.
It pains me to see people promoting themselves in such ways instead of lifting God up; just like I mentioned yesterday, the children of Israel took no time in lifting something else up just because God was not quick enough to satisfy their own feelings and their own desires. We need to wait on God, not just for the things of God but for the things in our own lives as well. Lifting up ourselves and promoting ourselves is just one of the things that we do when we think that God is not doing things quick enough or in the way that we want. It is something that we need to work at and something we need to recognise in our lives.
We must not lose sight of the fact that God is not bound by time – time is of no consequence to Him, it is just something that we live in and something that tends to tie us in knots when we give in to it. This does not mean that we should ignore time because we do live within its constraints and it is a very important part of our being and our existence – but imposing limits on our God who knows no limits is a very strange thing that we do and is just a small part of us being righteous or wise in our own eyes.
If we are going to make a show of being righteous or wise then who are we lifting up? If we are not lifting up God, then are we not going the same direction as Satan himself went? There is no way that any one of us can say that we are more righteous or wise or holy than any other person – we cannot see inside their hearts and inside their minds. God is the only one qualified to do that and that is something that we should never forget in our walk with Him. He is God. Lift Him up as God. Praise Him for all that He does. Let us bring ourselves to Him and serve Him first of all.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you compare yourself to others?
How often do you come humbly before your God?