My heart sometimes hurts for King David. He loved his son Absalom. I am sure he took a lot of pride in his beautiful son. I am convinced that had Absalom remained faithful to his father, David would have turned the Kingdom of Israel over to him. But, God’s ways are not our ways. We oftentimes overlook justice with mercy. Our clouded definition of mercy obscures the wisdom God grants us and we make many decisions that we later regret.
Pride has no place for a Christian. As soon as we say “Lord Jesus, Take my life and use it for your glory.” We give up the rights to ourselves. Everything we do should be done by His permission. It is a self-sacrifice many are unwilling to make. As soon as we find ourselves condemning someone or something no matter how much our wisdom, logic, and reason would say that it is right. We must only consider doing the right thing. Pride has a way of deceiving us into elevating ourselves above others. We are called to be servants – not masters. If our God can step out of Heaven’s glory and lay down His awesome power to become our servant, can we do no less for those he puts around us?
God’s divine mercy is infallible. He knew we could not make it to heaven on our own. He knew we could never be His friend if we continued under our own devices. Our personal worldly missions to gain more, to be better, to achieve recognition, to compete at the highest level, like King David’s son Absalom, will be our undoing. Our pride will hang us from a tree where there is no escape and our enemies will overtake and kill us.
(taken from a earlier devotion November 2006)
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