Bible Verse of the Day Tuesday June 20th, 2023

Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?  There is more hope for a fool than for them.

Pride most certainly does go before the fall! (Proverbs 16:18). To balance the two truths, we must avoid pride while comprehending exactly how much God values us, which is not an easy task. Satan can use our self-disparagement, as some call it, our worthless worm syndrome, to dishearten us and stop us from using our gifts and understanding our value to God in His kingdom work. However, releasing the pride monster removes God from the picture and places the glory for any contribution to the Kingdom of God on ourselves. To be a reflector of the Light of Christ to the world while being part of fallen humanity is a struggle, we, as Christ's disciples, will be involved in as long as we draw breath on God's green Earth. However, we can sustain an appropriate balance by placing the glory where it belongs to the one that adopted us into His royal family and made us a child of God.

The Lord has given us the abilities and gifts we are to use in our mission of spreading the Gospel of Christ Jesus to the ends of the Earth. However, we should never see our abilities as connected to any good works or deeds we do for God. We do what we do and are who we are because of God's grace and generous gifts. When we attempt to carry out our own planes, we will find ourselves in a vicious cycle of infinity. We can never believe and trust in God's Word and hold tightly to some worldly belief system.

We can fall into some desperate spiritual trap without even noticing we are sinking. Pride always leads to self-delusion; there is a gigantic difference between how we see ourselves and God's views. Sadly, sometimes we see ourselves as having no needs, while Jesus sees us as entirely needy. We find our comfort zone and want to stay in the worldly comfort we have grown so accustomed to.

God's guidance and direction extend to all people, even the fool; he will ensure that the fool gets what they deserve. John Trapp (1601-1669) once wrote: "As he made all, so he maintains all, even the evil and the unthankful, and he allows them a livelihood, gives them their portion in this life, fills their bellies with his good treasure, but by it sends leanness into their souls, or if he fattens them, it is to fit them for destruction, as fated ware is fitted for the meat market."