Sunday 29 Oct 2017

October 29: Proverbs 27:1-2

Key Verse: Proverbs 27:2
Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.

Devotion:
It is very easy to get carried away when describing yourself, whether you over-exaggerate a few things or just plain lie about your abilities, we all seem to get caught up in a bit of self-indulgent self-praise! From the Ten Commandments we remember the ninth “Do not bear false witness against your neighbour”; but what about false witness against yourself? When we lift up ourselves in praise we will not stop at what others see in ourselves but continue in expanding on things which others will not see in us. We continue to praise ourselves with more gusto than any advertising company could, because we think we know our own abilities.

We think we know what we are capable of even if we have never actually had to face up to the things we say we can do. We assume we are able to do things which we have never faced up to. We think we are better than we are. We get so carried away with our thoughts that we even convince ourselves we are better than we actually are. When we are then faced with something which stumps us we get so despondent about how we have been stumped with something we should be able to do, we start breaking down the walls of self-belief which we should have in the abilities we have already proven we have. We start to doubt things we have even done before!

This sort of thing happens, not just in our work and school lives, but in our spiritual lives. We assume that because we have a knowledge of some of the stories in the bible, we have a good knowledge of everything. We then get faced with a simple fact which we have not come across and we get stumped. We then start to doubt everything we have learned. This sort of position can take quite a while to get out of. What we need to do in the first place is recognise that we will be students for the rest of our lives and work in that new light. There is no way we are going to know what Christ has in His mind, but we can depend on Him because we know He is good and perfect. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow, but we sure can depend on The One who does know!

Points to Ponder:
What is your honest opinion of yourself?

Is that what you admit to God?