One of the temptations that naturally comes with God’s blessing is that of thinking that you got that blessing by your own strength. We imagine that the blessings are just out there for the taking, and, hey, I woke up early, I stayed up late, I used my resources in the right way and that’s how I got where I am. 

The Apostle Paul puts a stick of dynamite in that way of thinking when he says, “For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it” (1 Corinthians 4:7)?

This temptation is strong because we do reap what we sow. Proverbs does say, “the hand of the diligent shall rule.” But, where did you get your seed? Where did you get your diligence? Where did you get your field? 

We who want to work each day for the Lord, we who want to do good works unto him, must pay close attention to what God says through Isaiah. God says, ” Where is the house that ye build unto me? . . . For all those things hath mine hand made, And all those things have been, saith the Lord: But to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). Consider your last week. Have you been poor in spirit? Have you worked knowing that you have absolutely nothing to offer apart from God’s daily active kindness toward you? Have you trembled at His Word?

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