Taking Credit For The Faithfulness of Others – Sunday Thought For The Day

In 2 Corinthians 10:16 the Apostle Paul writes: “…and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.” (KJV)  This is a dangerously bad habit that we can fall into if we aren’t careful.  Let me explain.

Many years ago as I was preparing for the ministry, a Christian friend asked me to visit his family member who was in a hospital near me.  I gladly went and as it turned out, his family member prayed with me to accept the Lord during my visit with him.  To this day, I remember feeling very full of myself as I stood in the kitchen of our home later that day, patting myself on the back for leading the man to the Lord.

In the midst of my self-congratulatory party, I was humbled when the Lord made me to realize that He had answered my Christian brother’s many years of prayer for his family member to be saved.  I had been boasting myself “…in another man’s line of things made ready to [my] hand.”  I could not have felt more ashamed.  I have never forgotten that humbling lesson.

My friend had faithfully labored, witnessing and praying for his family member many years and God had used me to answer the prayers of his labors in what was his family member’s final days of life.

I was guilty of taking credit for what the Lord had done in answer to the faithful labors of another person.  I didn’t realize it until the moment the Holy Spirit convicted me.  It was a sobering lesson.

In Jeremiah 17:9 we read: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (KJV)  We must be aware of how deceitful and desperately wicked our hearts are.  We must guard ourselves against it at all times.  We often without thinking about it take credit for what God has done, specifically in answer to the labors and prayers of others.  It is never what we have done, but always what God has done and often what He has done using us in answer to another’s labors.

If we’re not careful, our hearts will lead us to seemingly give God the praise, when in reality we are praising ourselves.  My brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be careful to not take credit for the work of others, but rather let us thank God for the faithful labors of another, in which we are blessed to play a small part.

READ:

2 Corinthians 10:12-18 (KJV)

12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.

14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:

15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,

16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.

17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.