Give Praise to God
READ: I Samuel 2:1-10
There were seconds left in the state championship basketball game. Bill had already scored thirty-two points in the game, and the crowd was looking for him to score two more to help his team win the game. The ball was in bounded with ten seconds left. Bill popped out of the corner to receive the pass. He put the shot up and sank it at the buzzer. Bill’s team had won the championship. The Monday after the game everybody was congratulating Bill for the good game. He said things like, “I knew it was going in. I played well the whole game and the whole season, for that matter. I’m glad the scouts were there to see me play. I’ll probably be getting some phone calls pretty soon.” Everybody listening to him started to get a little angry and began to walk away. They didn’t want to listen to him talking about himself anymore.
This is just the thing that God doesn’t want us to do. He doesn’t want us to talk about ourselves and brag. We shouldn’t praise ourselves; but praise the one who gave us the abilities in the first place—God. The Lord is the one who deserves one hundred percent of our praises. He’s the one who gave us the talent, who gave us coaches and teachers to develop these talents. It says in I Samuel 2, “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” If it wasn’t for God, we would have nothing; we would have no talent and look foolish no matter what we did.
We must thank and praise God for the talents He has given to us and for everything else He has done for us. Everything we have, we've received from God.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: Do you sometimes give too much praise to yourself? Do you want to change, and give credit where credit is due? Have you prayed to God for help?
PRAYER SUGGESTIONS: Pray to God to help you overcome self-praising. Pray to God for forgiveness for the times you have gone too far in talking about yourself.