What do you have that you did not receive from the Lord?

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1 Cor 4:7 “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”

When king Hezekiah defeated Sennacherib who is the king of Assyria, the most powerful nation that time, we can read in 2 Chronicles 32:23 that “many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the LORD and valuable gifts for Hezekiah king of Judah. From then on he was highly regarded by all the nations.” Hezekiah became highly regarded among the nations. They brought him valuable gifts. But was the Lord highly regarded as well? Did He get ALL the credit for the wonderful deliverance that He had given Hezekiah? Because there is no doubting that Hezekiah’s victory was 100% God’s doing.

But it seems that Hezekiah took more of the credit because we can read on the next verse: “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign. But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him…”

This is also the same with us today. We have to be very careful because the sinful nature that dwells in us is very wicked. Even after the Lord has graciously given us deliverance and victory, the pride of our own heart would have us believe we played a great and important role in it! And this is foolishness to its maximum level! And so, the moral of the story is spelled out for us through the verse above: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Cor 4:7)” Let us then give the glory to whom the glory is due – to our Lord!