PASTOR SEYI OSANYINBI
[biblegateway passage=”PSALM 49:1 – 8″ display=”PSALM 49:1 – 8″]
Jesus speaking in [biblegateway passage=”Matthew 16: 26″ display=”Matthew 16: 26″], “For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”, made us realize that there is really nothing a man can give in exchange for his soul; the redemption of a soul is more precious than any amount of wealth. There is no amount of wealth a man can possess that can give him any level of eternal security. Money will not save anyone in the day of wrath and it will not deliver anybody in the Day of Judgment. Since the creation of the world, we have never heard that any rich man was able to save himself neither was he able to save another person. Many people can do anything just to get wealth and many just struggle to have a name on earth, but how many of these people eventually get remembered when they exit this world? In actual fact, it makes no sense to have men remember that we were once lived on this earth and heaven does not. It’s a rather more damned situation not to have our names written in the book of life after we have exited this earth.
The problem with many of us is that, when we have anything more than others, we tend to develop confidence in what we have. There is usually something we have or have become that makes us, to an extent, begin to develop some level of confidence in ourselves. Now, it is not wrong to be self-confident because we need confidence to run this race, but we should not ever think there is anything we have that makes us better than others in any way. David was able to defeat Goliath because he had self-confidence but his confidence was in the fact that he knew God and he was on the Lord’s side.
There is absolutely nothing we claim to have that was not given unto us by God. Even when it seems like we made our way through to the top from the scratch, it was still the Lord that made it possible, it was the Lord who gave us everything that helped us get there: the wisdom, information and opportunities. Why then should we boast in anything that we have? Why should we glory in the accomplishment that we have attained? Every time a man boasts, he triggers something in the heart of God. Sometimes, we fall into the trap of certain subtle pride without realizing that it’s a dangerous one.
What destroyed SATAN was pride. When glory and success come, they have the propensity to lure us into boasting. You and I must watch and be careful when God exhorts us, because our exhortation is surely coming. We should not let any gifts or opportunity that we have deceive us into boasting. That we have anything now doesn’t mean it wasn’t given to us. Now, there are some of us who may not have that natural flare to want to be boastful about anything but then, when we start receiving compliments from people, who draw our attention to perhaps, how smart we are, how rich and comfortable we are, or how beautiful and irresistible we are, our hearts begin to become aware of what we can claim to be, and without much time we also would fall into the same temptation of pride.
[biblegateway passage=”Jeremiah 9: 23 – 24″ display=”Jeremiah 9: 23 – 24″] The Lord, here warns us that if any man is wise, he should not take any glory in his wisdom, neither should a man who has mighty take glory in his might, nor a man who is rich take glory in his own riches. These three attributes (wisdom, might and riches) have the propensity to make one boastful; however, if we lack any of these three, we stand the risk of inferiority complex which is equally evil. Our boast thus, should be in the fact that we know and understand the Lord. We must know that it is God that shows us mercy and learn to make our boast in Him.
[biblegateway passage=”James 4:13 – 14″ display=”James 4:13 – 14″] We must also learn to acknowledge God even in our speeches because nobody has the power to make his/her own “tomorrow”. It is good to have faith about how we want “our tomorrow” to be and decide on certain things about our lives, but only God knows exactly how anything will play out. We really don’t know what tomorrow holds, because we were not there when God was making the decisions on what will take place in the courts of heaven. So when we say “we will do this, we will do that”, we would have started boasting and taking the position of the Lord and this may trigger a response from Him. It is always proper to acknowledge that we will be able if only the Lord wills. We must always remember that God does as He pleases.
It has always been by the strength of the Spirit of God, not by the might or power of anyone. We should be careful when we have anything that places us at an advantage over others lest we allow such to have control over our minds. Let us learn to ascribe all glory to God in whatever level of accomplishment we attain because whatever it is we become in life, we must realize that He is the one who has helped us.