You Have No Bragging Rights!

Saturday's Devotion (2-19-05)

"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Proverbs 27:2 (KJV)

This is a good rule to live by, for two reasons. The first reason is that God can't stand pride. God will exalt the humble and debase the prideful. Debase means that God will bring the prideful down. If you're humble, then the Lord is going to honor you. Let's look at the Psalmist and King David, he said, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" David had to be one of the most humble people to ever walk this earth, he was a king and yet he knew he was only a man. If this King knew his place with God and was humble (being a King) then how much more should we be humble people? King David also slayed the giant Goliath... was he prideful? Did he have the right to be prideful? I don't think so, because it was his faith in God that defeated the giant! It wasn't himself, but it was God! David knew this too. These days you have people in ministry that brag about their works. The people will brag and say, "I brought 20 people to Jesus!" or, "I'm a minister of God, I know what I'm talking about!" The bottom-line is this: You're just a man and so am I. I'm not better than you and you're not better than me. We're both below the Lord and not above! The Lord can destroy us, with just one word out of His mouth. Did you all hear the story about the minister in his church recently? He was preaching, "You never know when it's your time to go!" then as a testimony the Lord spoke and the minister went with a massive heart attack as he was looking up to Heaven.

The other reason not to praise yourself, is because you will earn the respect of others. If people see you as a decent person, then it'll be a lot easier for you to be used to save others. Some of you are too busy, praising yourselves to see the guy next to you, calling you a, "Jerk!" We need to be a light for others, not a stumbling block. Maybe someone sees us praising ourselves and they say, "If that's what it means to be a Christian, then no thank you!" We're not Christians to have bragging rights, but we're Christians to have Salvation rights! You have no bragging rights of yourself!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Please help us not to glory in ourselves, but in you. Help us to be lights for this dark world. Bring us closer to you and take away all our pride. In Jesus, name. A-men!

God bless!

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