“If I want to get along with God, I have to stay off of his throne!”
We don’t mind giving God most of the glory. Give us just a little bit of his glory. Resting in peace with God can only be accomplished when we stay off the throne. The throne is God’s and his alone. God and God alone is on the throne in heaven. God and God alone must also fully inhabit the throne of our hearts. Grace is unique to Christianity. Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve. Thank goodness God never gives us what we deserve.
What makes us want to crawl up on the throne, even a little? The desire to share God’s ‘red carpet’ afflicts everyone of us. “Others need to know we helped God out in our lives.” Wrong! This attitude is a complete anti-God state of mind. God has made a way for us and that way is in the person of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. (John 14:6). The only thing we contribute to our salvation is our sin. Like ‘sin’ the reason we want to occupy God’s throne is ‘pride’ which also has “I” in the middle. As long as I am in the middle, God is no longer the center. When God is not the center, I am / we are off center.
Pride is the root of all sin. Ego says “I know more than you God.” “I am able to do this without you God.” “You are not able to handle this one God, it needs my unique abilities.” . . . Self-worth is not based on ability, we are all afflicted. Some of us haven’t accepted this truth, but it is nonetheless true. Pride is most rampant when we don’t see it. We will lay pride down when we lay our bodies down. Until that day, may we purpose to keep pride in its cage.
Lord, I abandon your throne and may I, by your grace, not endeavor to climb up it again. Help me to have the same humble attitude as Jesus. He emptied himself and took on the nature of a servant and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. May my pride also die upon the cross today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
