Irvin Wasswa- Tylertown Campus Pastor LHBC
2 Chronicles 26:16-20
16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, 18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” 19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy[a] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.
King Uzziah was known as one of the greatest kings in the history of Judah. In the beginning of chapter 26 we see all of his accomplishments, how he served the Lord well and glorified Him. He was heralded as one of the great kings of all time. However somewhere along the way he became proud of his demise. He began to attribute the success to himself and he ended up in a mess. His pride led to his unwise decision to disobey the Lord by entering the temple and burning the incense at the altar.
Pride has the ability to destroy the individual. As the Proverb states, “Pride goes before the fall”. The issue with pride is that it robs God of His rightful place as King and Lord, but also robs Him of His place as the sole object of worship in our lives. Pride puffs up the individual and tempts us to worship ourselves instead of God. We then find ourselves in places we do not want to be, doing things that we do not want to do as in Uzziah’s case.
As followers of Christ we must choose to combat personal pride in our life. The reality is our successes come from the Lord. He gave us the giftings and abilities to work hard for Him, along with the influence and platform to be successful. He gave us the gift of our friends and family. He is the One who knitted us in the womb of our mothers as Psalm 139 says. Paul says in Acts 17 that in Christ we live, move and have our being. We are who we are because of the Lord! So let us choose to combat pride and walk in humility today. If you struggle with pride, choose to as James 4:10 says “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”
PRAYER FOR TODAY: Lord God, I love You. Help me to walk in humility today. Help me to make you the object of my worship today. Amen!
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
1 Peter 1:13
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[a] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.