“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand…”
I Peter 5:6
Wow! It wasn’t even noon yet, and I’d been able to check six things off the day’s to-do list. I congratulated myself and even bragged to my husband. And then I came to the next thing: working on this blog post, and I was reminded that anything that is accomplished is accomplished through God’s generous guidance and enabling. You see, this post is about being humble, and I certainly wasn’t being humble when I boasted to myself and my hubby about my accomplishments.
You know who else wasn’t humble? Can you guess based on recent posts? If you said Nebuchadnezzar you’d be right. Do you remember that prophetic dream the king had had? The one Daniel had to interpret for him? Daniel first detailed the king’s dream:
“Your majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous,
Daniel 2:31-33
dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of
pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of
iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.”
It’s not surprising that the king couldn’t figure out what it all meant. Even his wise men told him that no man could tell the king the dream and interpret it: “What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods and they do not live among humans” (2:11).
Daniel agreed with them and told the king so: “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen” (2:27-28). Then Daniel described to the king what God had revealed to him and explained to the king what it all meant:
“Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you
Daniel 2:37-38
dominion and power and might and glory; in your hands he has placed all
mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they
live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold”
Can you just picture Nebuchadnezzar sitting up straighter, his chest puffing out more and more with each revelation as he heard these things?
- He was king of kings!
- He had dominion and power and might and glory!
- He was ruler over all!
- He was the head of gold!
I think these things must have put Nebuchadnezzar in such a cloud of bliss he couldn’t see the whole picture. He may have picked up on the fact that there were other kingdoms to come, especially since he could relish the idea that those kingdoms would be much inferior to his. But he seems to have missed a couple of important things.
First, the only reason Nebuchadnezzar had such power was because the God of heaven had given it to him. There was nothing in himself that earned him these things.
“The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and
glory; in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the
field and the birds in the sky . . . he has made you ruler over them all.”
It is the God of heaven who is in control here. Nebuchadnezzar was just the recipient of God’s gracious gifts.
Second, Nebuchadnezzar missed the point that all those kingdoms—his included—would be destroyed. They would all be broken to pieces, and the wind would sweep them away without a trace (2:35). All that would be left was the greatest kingdom of all. A kingdom that would fill the whole earth. A kingdom that would last forever. A kingdom established by the God of heaven.
You see, when we have the wrong focus, a near-sighted focus on self, we miss the bigger picture. We fail to see that it is God who is in control and that we’re just recipients of His grace. I’d failed to see that my productive morning was not my doing but was a result of God’s grace. God had given me that free time. God had allowed me to focus. God had worked it out so that I was able to make the contacts necessary to make progress on some projects . . .
It’s easy to do, isn’t it? So easy to focus on what’s right before us and miss who is right behind us? So easy to think, “Look what I did!” instead of “See what God did!”
A number of years ago, God led me through a song-writing phase. One of the songs He inspired focused on just this point. Here’s the chorus He led me to write:
“It’s so easy to go through life with things unsaid,
“I Say, ‘Thanks.'” Lisa Ann Roettger
so easy to let these things go to my head:
Thinking I’m the one who’s done it all,
thinking I’m the one who deserves it all,
but it’s you, Lord. So I say, “Thanks.”
Oh, Lord, correct my vision. Help me to see beyond myself and to focus on you and all you are doing—in me and through me. Remind me that it’s you, Lord, and as I see you and all you are doing may I humbly kneel before you and say, “Thanks.”
Soul Refreshers for your week:
- Let’s work on our eyesight this week? Practice focusing on who is behind all that you are and all that you’re able to do.
- Then take some time saying, “Thanks.”
Refreshing others:
- What is one thing you are thanking God for this week?