Giving credit where credit is due

Give glory to God (John 9:24).

Don’t you hate it when you work hard to reach a goal, and then someone else comes along and takes all the credit? And yet this is exactly what the human race has done to God, over and over again. We constantly try to steal God’s thunder.

All around the world, ancient mythologies have stories about mortals who successfully stole technology from the gods. In some cases it was fire; in others it was seed kernels. The point, though, is that man gained technology by his own initiative—it was not a gift from above. Of course, this ignores the words of Moses spoken in Deuteronomy chapter 8: You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Mankind has also taken credit for the domestication of animals. Supposedly, primitive man tamed dogs, cats, horses, cattle and sheep. This despite the fact that the Bible says quite plainly that God created some animals as domestic and others as wild: God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds (Genesis 1:25).

Our modern world is full of people who take credit for what God has done. When a couple is blessed with a child, they happily claim, "we’ve made a baby." They forget Solomon’s words from Proverbs chapter 127: Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Doctors take the credit for restoring their patients to health, even though God says: There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal (Deuteronomy 32:39). Politicians seek praise for ending wars, even though Scripture says: Come and see the works of the LORD…He makes wars cease (Psalm 46:8-9).

It is nothing short of being arrogant and foolish to try and steal God’s thunder. As Paul says in Acts 17:28, in him we live and move and have our being. Without God’s active and loving involvement every day, our lives would amount to nothing but a heap of failures. So when you accomplish anything worthwhile, give God the credit that is due Him.