Surely we are not full of contempt and arrogance! Surely we do not think “Oh, I am a Christian. God loves me best. Oh the Lord has placed me here because I am so holy. Yes, I am the only Christian here. Yes, I get blessed because I am not a heathen…!” Really? We’re in trouble when we begin to believe our own press. Try this verse on for size.
It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 9:5, AMP)
The Israelites were God’s chosen people but that’s not why God gave them the Promised Land. No, He sent them in there because He wanted to drive out the wicked people who lived there already. As well, He wanted to keep the promise He’d made to Abraham long before (see Genesis 15:18a).
We would do well to remember that God lets the sun rise on both evil and good. He lets rain fall on both the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45b)
We aren’t special. We are simply graced by the Spirit.
Prayer: Lord when we get thinking that we are righteously upright above others, bring us down a peg. Amen.
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