courage and pride

Monday’s readings were a bit shorter and slowed down the narrative of the writings a little bit. This gave us the chance to seem in more detail some of the good and bad points of 3 Kings of Judah. And as the reading and story slowed down and gave more attention to detail one important truth and theme came through in all 3 chapters. 2 Chronicles 26:18 highlights that one day Uzziah got proud and went into the Temple to offer sacrifices of his own to God. This pride led to disobedience and ultimately resulted in the death of Uzziah. The next verse states that men of courage went it and got Uzziah out of the Temple and set him straight. Then later in chapter 28, King Ahaz deals with pride himself and instead of going back to God for help and worship, Ahaz runs to other countries and other gods for help. The pride of Ahaz led him astray right from the start. I found the themes of pride running all through the text as I read and I believe that verse 18 is a key to beating pride in our lives. Courage is I believe opposite of pride. When we are courageous, we do what is right no matter what the cost. When we are courageous we take risks even at the expense of ourselves. When we are courageous we know God has it all figured out and is in control and we obey Him no matter what. When we are courageous we trust that Jesus will work it all out for His good and glory. When we are courageous we are never full of pride. And I think courage is a lost attribute of Christians today. We would rather just go with the flow and not offend anyone or look bad. We would sooner be comfortable than do what is right. We would sooner have more friends and feel the love of the world than know the love of God by loving Him first. We would rather not feel pain so we do whatever is necessary to not have it. If you love Jesus, you need to find more courage in every single aspect of your life. That is the bottom line and courage when it is found leads to humility and not pride.

 

*26:22 mentions Isaiah son of Amoz. This is the Prophet Isaiah that is a book of the Bible, which we will be reading through later this summer together. *