Proverbs 16:4-5
The Lord works everything for its own ends—
even the wicked for the day of disaster.
The Lord abhors every arrogant person;
rest assured that they will not go unpunished.
Why do you think God hates arrogance? Do you think it has anything to do with the first half of this proverb? “The Lord works everything for its own ends-even the wicked…”
Let’s answer that question with a question. Have you ever had someone take credit for your idea or something you did? How did that make you feel? Did you want to give that person a hug? Or did you want to high five them in the face?
Probably their face…
I have had this happen to me a lot. (Not getting hit in the face – though that has happened.) For some reason, I’ve had a lot of people steal my ideas and take credit for them. I don’t know why, if there’s just something about me that begs people to steal my ideas. Or if I’m just too trusting and believe that people will do what’s right, not just what makes them look better.
The thing with stealing other people’s ideas and taking credit for someone else’s work is that it’s eventually going to catch up with you. They’ll either stop sharing their ideas with you or they’ll just leave. Either way, they’ll be gone and so will the ideas. And if you don’t have ideas of your own, you’re going to have to find someone else to steal them from. Luckily for you, there’s this thing called the internet that allows you to steal good ideas from people all around the world. No doubt, some will even try to steal this post and pass the idea off as their own.
Here’s the point. God is the one who has all the ideas and does all the work. When we take credit for what God is doing in our lives, we are saying that we did what only God can do. It’s not a good idea to take credit for God’s work. That’s why he hates arrogance.
Arrogance is saying you were the one who did it all. It’s saying that you don’t need anyone else’s help. It’s saying that you’re better than anyone. Even God. That’s a problem.
