God’s Acts…in His Leaders!

As leaders, when we are used by God to help someone else with a hand up in life, it is easy for that person and their family and friends to hold YOU up as…well, a god. RUN from those praises! We are only the vessels through which God works in and through to pour out HIS blessings and help. OUR help comes from the LORD! We must always give glory to God, the Source of life, the Giver of all things good and blessed. Paul shows us how and why…

Acts 14, The Message
Gods or Men?
8-10 There was a man in Lystra who couldn’t walk. He sat there, crippled since the day of his birth. He heard Paul talking, and Paul, looking him in the eye, saw that he was ripe for God’s work, ready to believe. So he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “Up on your feet!” The man was up in a flash—jumped up and walked around as if he’d been walking all his life.

11-13 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they went wild, calling out in their Lyconian dialect, “The gods have come down! These men are gods!” They called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes” (since Paul did most of the speaking). The priest of the local Zeus shrine got up a parade—bulls and banners and people lined right up to the gates, ready for the ritual of sacrifice.

14-15 When Barnabas and Paul finally realized what was going on, they stopped them. Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out, “What do you think you’re doing! We’re not gods! We are men just like you, and we’re here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God. We don’t make God; he makes us, and all of this—sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.

16-18 “In the generations before us, God let all the different nations go their own way. But even then he didn’t leave them without a clue, for he made a good creation, poured down rain and gave bumper crops. When your bellies were full and your hearts happy, there was evidence of good beyond your doing.” Talking fast and hard like this, they prevented them from carrying out the sacrifice that would have honored them as gods—but just barely.

What do we learn and need relentless focus upon?
–God is God and we are not.

Dear Heavenly Father, When things are going well, we have the temptation of feeling self sufficient in accomplishments. Pride steps in and praise for You is laid aside. We repent. Forgive us when we lose focus of the You Who began all of life. You are in every detail of our lives! Thank you for calling our attention back to the Source. You. We love you with all our heart, mind and soul. You are God…and we are not. Blessed be the Name of the LORD! In Jesus Name, be with us still, Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, When things are going well, we have the temptation of feeling self sufficient in accomplishments. Pride steps in and praise for You is laid aside. We repent. Forgive us when we lose focus of the You Who began all of life. You are in every detail of our lives! Thank you for calling our attention back to the Source. You. We love you with all our heart, mind and soul. You are God…and we are not. Blessed be the Name of the LORD! In Jesus Name, be with us still, Amen.