Deuteronomy 9

Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven, A people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak! Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

(Deu 9:1-4)

It is in our blood… I don’t care what the situation or the circumstances might be, our natural response when God has done something for us is to try and take some kind of credit. We want to see ourselves as having a part in what happened, or as earning it by our great deeds… Why??? Because we always want a little taste of the glory.

God was about to do some incredible things in and through the lives of the Jews. Here where these people named the Anakim, and they were known around town as the guys no one could stand a chance against. Now, beating the guy no one else can beat does one thing for you… it makes you the new king in town. What God is concerned about here is who that king would be, Him or the Israelites. He is warning them now that they couldn’t claim a part in the victory because THEY DID NOT DESERVE IT.

It is a difficult idea to get in our heads, but the fact is, WE DON’T DESREVE TO GO TO HEAVEN. WE DON’T DESERVE TO BE FORGIVEN. We have no right claiming to have earned ANYTHING from the Lord, when the one thing we really HAVE earned is the sentence of death. You see, the way we come by any greatness in this life is through humble faith in the Lord. The danger God wants to keep us from is looking at the blessing we receive and thinking “I earned that”.

It was true for the Israelites and it is true for us. The attitude we take toward the victories in our lives will determine the state fo our future experience. If we remain humble and see it as a gift from the Lord, then we can expect to continue to benefit from that same grace. If we take credit on the other hand, we can be sure that a fall will not be to far off in our future. The Bible makes it clear, “pride comes before a fall”. So, don’t think you have somehow earned the right to wear the name “Christian”. Remember that ALL we have is a product of GRACE, getting from God what we DON’T deserve!