Lesson 8

If we want to be humble before God, we must always possess these various attitudes:

God is good, and He is the only being who is good.
No human beings by themselves are ever good.
No human beings by themselves are capable of doing good.

Jesus answered: "No one is good - except God alone."
(Luke 18:19)

"All have turned away,
     all have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
     not even one."
(Romans 3:12)

Thus, all the goodness in our life has come from God.
He is the source of all goodness in this world and in our life.

The goodness in our character has been imparted into our nature by God.
The good things (the blessings) we possess have been freely given by God.
The good ministry that we are involved in has been given to us by God.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
(James 1:17)

For what makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, who do you boast as though you did not?
(1 Corinthians 4:7)

Therefore, we are commanded by God to give Him all the glory for all that He has done in our lives - for transforming our character so that we reflect His goodness; for blessing us with all the good gifts we have ever received; and for giving us a good ministry to serve Him.

Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,
     ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
     worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
(Psalm 29:1-2)

Sing to the Lord, praise His name;
     proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare His glory among the nations,
     His marvelous deed among all peoples.
(Psalm 96:2-3)

Many people have wrong attitudes towards the goodness and blessings of God in their life.
These wrong attitudes include the following:

When we have tasted of God's goodness, He wants us to testify of His goodness to others, so that others may come to know Him as their Creator God and their Savior God.
God's love for man is called the Good News (the Gospel).
God wants His people to share the Good News with all men, and bear witness to Him.
He wants us to tell others how He has redeemed us, saved us and blessed us.

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."
(Mark 16:15)

"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."
(Psalm 107:2)

Keeping silent when God has saved us, healed us, and delivered us from demons and calamities is being disobedient to God's command to tell others of His goodness.
A believer who keeps silent about the goodness of God is not being humble.
He is more concerned about his reputation and about what others may think of him and his past than about what God thinks of him.
He fears men more than he fears God.

Thus our Lord Jesus Himself told the Garasene demoniac to tell others of the goodness of God after he was healed and delivered from a multitude of demons (Luke 8:39).
How are others to know about God's goodness if we keep silent?
Only dead people do not praise God.

"Return home and tell how much God has done for you."
(Luke 8:39)

The dead do not praise the Lord.
     Nor any who go down into silence.
But we will praise the Lord,
     From this time forth and forevermore.
(Psalm 115:17)

Many of God's people, even after receiving God's salvation, healing, deliverance, help and other blessings, never appreciate God's goodness with their lips.
Instead, they focus only on the problems of life, magnify these petty difficulties, and complain and grumble all the time about the smallest inconveniences.
Such believers are ungrateful to God for His goodness.
They tend to blame others, especially leaders, for their problems; indirectly they are blaming God for all the problems they met in their life.

Ungrateful people never appreciate or acknowledge the multitude of God's blessings upon their lives.
Instead, they focus on the difficulties of their problems rather than on the greatness of God and on the ability of God to help them.

Because they grumble and complain, ungrateful people put themselves under a curse, because whatever they complain about with their own lips will come to pass in their life and destroy them.
Like the Israelites under Moses who complained and grumbled on the journey to the promised land (Numbers 14:26-29), they will come under God's judgment and will wither away in the wilderness of life.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "How long will this wicked community GRUMBLE against me? I have HEARD the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall - everyone of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has GRUMBLED against me."
(Number 14:26-29)

Because you did not serve the Lord your God JOYFULLY and GLADLY in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
(Deuteronomy 28:47-48)

God's people therefore must keep a watch over their mouths to ensure that no words of grumbling and complaint come forth and displease God.
Instead, God wants us to be glad in Him and rejoice always in His goodness.

When a person boasts about his own achievements and his own goodness and does not give the glory to God, he is stealing God's glory and incurring God's wrath and judgment.

Such person is proud, and God will cast Him down.
God becomes his enemy.
God resists such a person and will cause his downfall.

God OPPOSES the proud,
     but give grace to the humble.
(1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34)

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be EXALTED.
(Luke 18:14)

Pride goes before DESTRUCTION,
     a haughty spirit before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:18)

God will not share His glory with any person on this earth.
Every good thing in our life must be ascribed to Him as the source.
We are only allowed to boast in the Lord.

When others praise, we must not steal God's glory but instead quickly give all the glory to God.
Always remember that we are only earthen vessels containing the treasures of God.
By ourselves, we are not good; neither can we do anything good.
It is by the power of God alone that we are able to do good works.

I am the Lord; that is my name.
I will not give my glory to another
     or my praise to idols.
(Isaiah 42:8)

This is what the Lord says:
     "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
          or the strong man boast of his strength
          or the rich man boast of his riches,
     but let him who boasts boast in this:
          that he understands and knows me,
     that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
          justice and righteousness on earth,
          for in these I delight."
(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.
(1 Corinthians 1:31)

Examples of persons in Scripture who did not give God the glory for their blessings, but instead became proud and took the glory for themselves were the angel Lucifer, and King David, and King Nebuchadnezzar. All came under God's immediate judgment because of their pride.

Lucifer was cast out of heaven, and became the devil (the accuser of the brethren) or satan (the adversary of God and man).
King David cause God's judgment to fall upon Israel because of his pride.
King Nebuchadnezzar lost his throne for a season and became a mad man, until he repented and had his kingdom restored to him.

Before the devil was cast out of the presence of God, he was a archangel, created by God as a creature with great wisdom and beauty.
However, because of pride in his wisdom and beauty, he thought he was greater than God, he rebelled against God and wanted to take God's place.
For that, he was cast out of the presence of God.

In God's judgment upon Lucifer, God declared:

So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
     and I expelled you, O guardian cherub,
     from among the fiery stones.
Your heart became proud
     on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
     because of your splendor.
So I threw you down to earth;
     I made a spectacle of you before kings.
(Ezekiel 28:16-17)

Satan continues to stir man to walk in pride, so as to cause him to fall likewise from the grace of God. When we are proud, we are allowing ourselves to be controlled and be led astray by Satan.

When King David became proud of his army and victories and numbered his fighting men, in spite of objections from his friends, God's judgment came upon him.
Thus we read:

Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know now any there are."
But Joab replied, "May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?
(1 Chronicles 21:1-3)

Because of David's pride, God cause a plague to come upon the people of Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel died (1 Chronicles 21:6-15).
The pride of a leader can bring harm to those under him.
Never follow a leader who is boastful and proud; destruction is not far behind.

King Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest ruler among men who raised up earthly kingdoms (Daniel 2:36-45).
He became proud of his achievement (Daniel 4:30) although he was warned by God in a dream to humble himself and give glory to God (Daniel 4:1-27).
As he was boasting of his own greatness, God judged him and he became mad, eating grass like a com.

Later, God restored his sanity, and he repented and humbled himself before God, acknowledging the righteousness of God in his judgments.
He said:

"At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became every greater than before. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
(Daniel 4:36-37)

Your thought

PRAYER

DECLARATION & PROCLAMATIONS

Proclaim and declare these confessions as often as you can, for as you do so, you establish the kingdom of God in your lives, in your family, in your church, in the nations, and in this earth. (Matthew 16:19; 18:18; John 14:13-14; Mark 11:23-24)

Study the following persons in greater detail concerning their pride, with a focus on these areas:
How did the person boast and showed his pride?
How did God deal with the person after his boasting?
Why was the boasting wrong?
Why happened after the person repented?

1. Lucifer/Satan: Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:11-17.

2. King David: 1 Chronicles 21:1-22.

3. King Nebuchadnezzar: Daniel 4:1-37.