As I was walking around the yard this morning watering the plants and looking at the beauty all around me, I was reminded of the fact that all we have and all we enjoy is a gift from God. We have a tendency to claim what we have as our own and take credit for having it and keeping it.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, stood on his palace balcony and admired the scene before him. Here is what he said as quoted in Daniel 4:30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?”
Even though we're not the kings of great empires, don't we have this same tendency? We look at our possessions and think, "look at what I've accumulated," or "how smart I was to purchase this property."
God says that every good and perfect gift is from Him. (James 1:17) When Paul was speaking before the Greek philosophers he said, "God made the world and everything in it....he gives to all life and breath and all things." (Acts 17:24-25)
One of God's greatest complaints about us humans is that we are not thankful. (Romans 1:21) He says that an unthankful attitude is connected to futile thinking that defies God and leads to vain philosophies and foolish thinking and ultimately to even greater rebellion against the God.
God, in His great love to us, has given us richly all things to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17) But He deserves our thanksgiving and praise rather than our selfish claim that it is all of our doing.
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