Pride, Fear, or Faith – A Quote

Often, the first way a man responds to God is with pride.  This response communicates that “I know better than God does.”  Travel… with me to an ER scene.  Imagine that I come strolling in, tap the attending physician on the shoulder, and start giving him tips on how to treat my son.  I’m qualified, aren’t I?  I have a B.A. degree (Band-Aids) and have been trained in scrape-and-cut trauma.  I have kissed dozens of boo-boos with great care, and my children love me.

Yeah, right.  Actually, my first helpful thought in my son’s situation would be to get out of the way and let the qualified medical personnel do their jobs.

I play a little hoop, but that doesn’t mean I can get Kobe Bryant on the phone and tell him he needs to work on his running jumper.  I played baseball in high school, but that doesn’t mean I can tell Barry Bonds to watch that elbow hitch.  I have birdied a few holes in my lifetime, but that doesn’t mean I can school Tiger Woods on his long-iron approaches.  Bottom line: The gap between these legends and me is as long as one of Tiger’s drives.  YOu know it, and I know it.

Yet this is exactly how many of us act toward God.  The gap between Him and us is infinite – yet we have the audacity to say, “Thanks, God, but I’ll take it from here.”  And some of us don’t flinch from giving Him our unvarnished opinions.

That’s what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar, who had to learn some lessons in humility.  Talk about humbling: For seven years, the king suffered from a mental illness that caused him to roam the pastures outside the palace and chew grass like a cow.  After paying the price for his pride, the once self-centered king said: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just.  And those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Daniel 4:37).  In this confession, two words and one phrase are key for me: everything, all, and his ways.

These words speak to the king’s new understanding of God’s control and to the choice we must all make:  His way or my way.  Some men simply do not ask God, “How do You want me to handle this?” or inquire, “What does God’s Word call me to do in this situation?”  The reasons for not asking these questions are simple ignorance or blatant arrogance.  Niether befits God’s man, and both carry high price tags.

excerpt from Every Man, God’s Man