Life's Daily Challenge Devotional

Don't trust yourself

“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," Philippians 3:3.

Dear God-confident one,

No flesh is reliable. At its very core, the heart of man, unassisted by the Holy Spirit is, "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." (Jeremiah 17:9) Man has been trying hard to hide this fact ever since Adam and Eve hid themselves with fig leaves. Our tendency in this world full of injury and pain is to trust nothing but ourselves. If we think about it long enough, however, we should soon realize that we have let ourselves down more than anyone else has. That is the nature of flesh. It is temporal and limited...weak.

The wise man learns that he should put no confidence in the flesh. All flesh will fail. We can not put our trust in people, things, or circumstances. We should not put our confidence in our own abilities either. God stands waiting for us to take childlike steps of faith that express a trust in Him and Him alone. When we submit our thoughts, our words, our actions, and our plans to Him, He works through all that He has entrusted to us. When our security is in Him, we can freely give to others as He leads us. Even when people fail us, He will cover, protect and provide for us.

There is a very fine line to walk here. In fact the Bible calls it a straight and narrow road that few will find (Matthew 7:14). We must act. We must use and exercise all that God has given us. We cannot bury our gifts and talents. He will not exercise them for us. That is our responsibility. We must, however, be careful not to act independently of Him. He designed us to live with and work with Him. Like Paul, we must live, and move, and have our being in Christ (Acts 17:28). Our faith should be in His ability to do all things through us rather than in our ability to do anything for Him.

It is our strengths, rather than our weaknesses that often trip us up. Most of us know to come to God for assistance in the things that we can not do well. We often fall into the deepest trouble when we make the assumption, consciously or unconsciously that we don't need any help. These are the times when we begin to create things without God's Spirit. These towers of Babel often come back to haunt us later. We should be grateful when God destroys them while they're still small. There can be no greater embarrassment than when someone is deceived into thinking that he is a great builder. The enemy watches as we create tall and beautiful structures. He entices us to build. He may even help. He loves it when our designs attract the attention of many. He waits for the right strategic time to pull out the faulty foundation stones. When he does, our prize edifices collapse in front of the world's eyes. Many will be injured or killed in the collapse. History keeps repeating this scenario again and again. Pride comes before the fall (Proverbs 16:18).