Proverbs 27:21

How do you respond when someone compliments you? Some people absolutely love receiving praise because it lifts their spirits and makes them feel valuable. Others are uncomfortable with it. They look down at their feet or offer reasons why they really don’t deserve such praise.

For Christians, there’s another dilemma. We’re called to be humble, so what are we to do when others say good things about us? Because pride is always waiting to raise its ugly head, we need to be careful not to let praise puff us up. Some believers think that accepting a compliment is a sign of pride, so they make a big show of giving all the glory to God. That’s fine, if it’s really what’s in their hearts, but too often it becomes a rote “Christian” response that’s geared to impressing others.

My advice is simply to say, “Thank you very much.” Then whisper a prayer in your heart to the Lord, thanking Him for the blessing, recognizing that anything worthy of praise ultimately comes from Him. If you felt encouraged, let the person know how the comment blessed you. If you receive praise for an achievement that was really a group effort, be sure to redirect the compliment to all those who were involved. A blessing is always more enjoyable when it’s shared.

Our character is tested by the praise that comes to us. Every compliment that bounces into our ears should quickly rebound up to the Father. If we hold onto it, the poison of pride will begin to infect our hearts. But if we pass the praise to God, humility takes up residence in our souls.

A familiar fable tells of the hunter who lost his life to the leopard he himself had saved as a pet for his children when the leopard was just a cub. The moral of the story can be deduced easily from the title, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards; or else, sin is easier to deal with before it becomes a habitual practice that eventually defines our lives.(1) Though the story as it stands is a beautiful illustration of a profound truth, there is a deeper lesson regarding the nature of sin that is easily concealed by this line of thinking and which, I believe, lies at the very essence of the Christian call to Christ-likeness. The problem is that the parallel between little harmless leopard cubs and little harmless sins can be dangerously deceptive.

Whereas leopard cubs are indeed harmless, there is no stage of development at which sin can be said to be harmless, for individual acts of sin are merely the symptoms of the true condition of our hearts. It is not accidental that the call to Christian growth in the Scriptures repeatedly zeros-in on such seemingly benign “human shortcomings” as bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and malicious behavior (Ephesians 4:31). In his watershed address, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus placed a great deal of emphasis on lust, anger, and contempt—behaviors and attitudes that would probably not rank high on our lists of problems in need of urgent resolution. Armed with firm and sometimes unconscious categories of serious versus tolerable sins, we gloss over lists of vices in the Scriptures because they seem to be of little consequence to life as we experience it.

But when we fail to grasp the subtleties of sin, we run the risk of rendering much of biblical wisdom irrelevant to our daily life and practice. While we appreciate the uniqueness and necessity of the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf, his specific teachings can at times appear to be farfetched and the emphasis misplaced. Does it not seem incredible that the God who made this world would visit it in its brokenness, dwell among us for over thirty years, and then leave behind the command that we must be nice to each other? Can the problems of the world really be solved by having people “turn the other cheek” and “get rid of anger and malice”? To quote a close friend, “Hello!”

Unfortunately, those “little” sins are not only the mere symptoms of a much bigger problem; they are also effective means of alienating us from God and other human beings.  How many careers have been ruined only because of jealousy? How many people have been deprived of genuine help as a result of the seemingly side-comment of someone who secretly despised them? How many relationships have been destroyed by bitterness? How many churches have split up because of selfish ambitions couched in pietistic terms? How much evil has resulted from misinformation, a little coloring around the edges of truth? And have you noticed how much we can control other people just through our body language? From the political arena to the basic family unit, the worst enemy of human harmony is not spectacular wickedness but those seemingly harmless petty sins routinely assumed to be part of what it means to be human.

According to a NASA scientist, a two-degree miscalculation when launching a spacecraft to the moon would send the spacecraft 11,121 miles away from the moon: all one has to do is take time and distance into account.(2) How perceptive then was George MacDonald when he uttered these chilling words, “A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter, and thinking himself a good Christian”!(3) Similarly, C.S. Lewis warned that cards are a welcome substitute for murder if the former will set the believer on a path away from God. “Indeed,” he wrote, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”(4)

Now the decisive path out of this quandary is not just a greater resolve to be obedient to God. Such a response is usually motivated by guilt, and the duration of our effort will be directly proportional to the amount of guilt we feel: we will be right back where we started from when the guilt is no longer as strong. The appropriate response must begin with a greater appreciation of the holiness of God and a clear vision of life in God. It is only along the path of Christ-likeness that the true nature of sin is revealed and its appeal blunted. Yes, brazen sinfulness is appallingly evil and destructive, but it only makes a louder growl in a forest populated by stealthier, deadly hunters masquerading as little leopards. It is no idle, perfunctory pastime to pray with King David:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
And lead me along the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139:23-24).

 J.M. Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) For example, Paul White’s, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards, published by African Christian Press.
(2) John Trent, Heartshift: The Two Degree Difference That Will Change Your Heart, Your Home, and Your Health (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004), 17.
(3) George MacDonald, in George MacDonald: An Anthology by C. S. Lewis (New York: Dolphin Books, 1962), 118.
(4) C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in A C.S. Lewis Treasury: Three Classics in One Volume (New York: Harcourt & Company, 1988), 250.

Morning   “The evening and the morning were the first day.”    Genesis 1:5

Was it so even in the beginning? Did light and darkness divide the realm of time

in the first day? Then little wonder is it if I have also changes in my

circumstances from the sunshine of prosperity to the midnight of adversity. It

will not always be the blaze of noon even in my soul concerns, I must expect at

seasons to mourn the absence of my former joys, and seek my Beloved in the

night. Nor am I alone in this, for all the Lord’s beloved ones have had to sing

the mingled song of judgment and of mercy, of trial and deliverance, of mourning

and of delight. It is one of the arrangements of Divine providence that day and

night shall not cease either in the spiritual or natural creation till

we reach the land of which it is written, “there is no night there.” What our

heavenly Father ordains is wise and good.

What, then, my soul, is it best for thee to do? Learn first to be content with

this divine order, and be willing, with Job, to receive evil from the hand of

the Lord as well as good. Study next, to make the outgoings of the morning and

the evening to rejoice. Praise the Lord for the sun of joy when it rises, and

for the gloom of evening as it falls. There is beauty both in sunrise and

sunset; sing of it, and glorify the Lord. Like the nightingale, pour forth thy

notes at all hours. Believe that the night is as useful as the day. The dews of

grace fall heavily in the night of sorrow. The stars of promise shine forth

gloriously amid the darkness of grief. Continue thy service under all

changes. If in the day thy watchword be labour, at night exchange it for watch.

Every hour has its duty, do thou continue in thy calling as the Lord’s servant

until he shall suddenly appear in his glory. My soul, thine evening of old age

and death is drawing near; dread it not, for it is part of the day; and the Lord

has said, “I will cover him all the day long.”

 

Evening   “He will make her wilderness like Eden.”   Isaiah 51:3

Methinks, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and terrible desert,

like to the Sahara. I perceive nothing in it to relieve the eye, all around I am

wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching

skeletons of wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way in

the pitiless waste. What an appalling sight! How horrible! a sea of sand without

a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn! But

behold and wonder! Upon a sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a

plant of renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands–it is a rose, and at

its side a lily bows its modest head; and, miracle of miracles! as

the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the wilderness is transformed into a

fruitful field, and all around it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is

given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Call it not Sahara, call it

Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of deathshade, for where the

skeletons lay bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up

spring the dead, a mighty army, full of life immortal. Jesus is that plant of

renown, and his presence makes all things new. Nor is the wonder less in each

individual’s salvation. Yonder I behold you, dear reader, cast out, an infant,

unswathed, unwashed, defiled with your own blood, left to be

food for beasts of prey. But lo, a jewel has been thrown into your bosom by a

divine hand, and for its sake you have been pitied and tended by divine

providence, you are washed and cleansed from your defilement, you are adopted

into heaven’s family, the fair seal of love is upon your forehead, and the ring

of faithfulness is on your hand–you are now a prince unto God, though once an

orphan, cast away. O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which

changes deserts into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy.

 

. . . Who heals all your diseases.   Psalms 103:3

Humbling as this statement is, yet the fact is certain that we are all more or less suffering under the disease of sin. What a comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of Him for a moment tonight.

His cures are very speedy—there is life for a look at Him; His cures are radical—He strikes at the center of the disease; and so His cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals, no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season. He makes new men of them: He also gives them a new heart and puts a right spirit within them.

He is well skilled in all diseases. Physicians generally have some specialty. Although they may know a little about almost all our pains and ills, there is usually one disease that they have studied more than others; but Jesus Christ is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of human nature. He is as much at home with one sinner as with another, and He never yet met an unusual case that was difficult for Him. He has had extraordinary complications of strange diseases to deal with, but He has known exactly with one glance of His eye how to treat the patient. He is the only universal doctor; and the medicine He gives is the only true panacea, healing in every instance.

Whatever our spiritual malady may be, we should apply at once to this Divine Physician. There is no brokenness of heart that Jesus cannot bind up. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”1 We have only to think of the myriads who have been delivered from all sorts of diseases through the power and virtue of His touch, and we will joyfully put ourselves in His hands. We trust Him, and sin dies; we love Him, and grace lives; we wait for Him, and grace is strengthened; we see Him as he is, and grace is perfected forever.

11 John 1:7

The family reading plan for May 31, 2012

Isaiah 32 | Revelation 2