"Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
but a person is tested by being praised."
- Proverbs 27:21
One thing I've learnt about "success" in God's Kingdom: it is not always what it seems.
Never ever put your confidence in titles or positions or "traditions". You can be at the top one day and find yourself right at the bottom the next day.
And just because you're at the top, or reach the top faster than someone else, it does not make you the best person up there.
Sometimes it is when you're at your peak that you find yourself right at the bottom of the pile. And sometimes it is when you're running on empty, finding that you have nothing to give, that God places you in the lead.
We can work hard to achieve certain things we want/desire - maybe a sphere of ministry that we love and enjoy doing and that brings us SO MUCH joy - and yet, all of these things are as nothing to God. In fact, sometimes God destroyed even HIS OWN TEMPLE because it replaced Him as the source of His people's security and pride and delight.
I want wisdom to pursue the right things, to have the right heart/response in every situation. To be undaunted by criticism and unshaken by the praise of men. To not let myself rejoice when men elevate me, or mourn when I am thrown off my throne, but to keep my eyes on Jesus, who is my reward. Hard as it is to see this sometimes, my goal in life is not to accumulate for myself achievements/rewards that will some day rot, but to know Christ and to love Him with all that I am and all that I have.
:> *hugs*!!!!
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