Responding to God’s Goodness

CALL TO PRAYER

Title: Responding to God’s Goodness

By:  Daniel Peter

Date: 01.12.2021

But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 

(2Chronicles 32:25 ESV)

God intends to bless us with all our heart desires, and He has done so in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3), but how we handle His blessings is one we have to consider carefully. Pride is a sin that has made a lot of great men fall. Watching that we don’t fall by pride is, therefore, a wise thing to do. 

The bible is replete with stories of people who fell because of the sin of pride. Lucifer, which was one of the highest-ranking angels of God was the first to fall by pride. He did because of his beauty and then corrupted his wisdom. Both beauty and wisdom are good gifts from God, but because Lucifer did not respond well to God’s goodness by becoming proud, he plunged into darkness. Gifts that were made to be good, now became a reason for his fall. 

The case of not responding positively to God’s goodness was not just seen among angels, it was also witnessed among men in the bible. King Uzziah was one who started well in God. The bible recorded that He sought God during the days of Zechariah and learnt the fear of God under him, and because of this, he became strong (2Chro. 26:5,16). However, at the height of his success, he responded proudly to God’s goodness and sought to fulfil the ministry of a priest, despite he wasn’t from the family of Aaron (2Chro. 26:19 ). This sin also beset King Hezekiah and Josiah, who were supposedly righteous kings before God. In all of the cases mentioned, we can see that the cause of their fall was due to an act of kindness shown to them by God. 

The stories of people who fell because they did not respond properly to God’s goodness were written for our examples, and there are things we can do to avoid this. When giving the commandments, Moses left instructions in the law in the case Israel decide to choose a king later. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 records Moses saying the king should have a copy of the law and read (meditate on) them all the days of his life, so he may not be lifted above his brethren. From this, we see how meditating on the word helps us in the development of a heart of humility, which responds positively to God. This was clearly exemplified by our Lord Jesus, who despite receiving all things from the Father, and knowing His origin and ending, decided to take the form of a servant and washed the feet of the disciples (John 13:1-15), showing us the examples we should follow. 

In conclusion, when we receive an exaltation from God, and after He expresses his goodness to us by blessing us with things, we should desire the least position, and be a servant to others, esteeming them more deserving than us. In this way, responding positively to God, and following the footsteps of Jesus. And this attitude of the heart can only be formed in us when we keep meditating on the word of God, with the intention to do.

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His word today, let’s also ask Him to give us the grace to abide in the word and to follow His footsteps of humility.

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God bless you all.