Be Not Prideful

2 Chronicles 26:5, 7, 14-21

5 Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.

7 God helped him in his wars against the Philistines, his battles with the Arabs of Gur, and his wars with the Meunites.

14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones. 15 And he built structures on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to protect those who shot arrows and hurled large stones from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the Lord gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.

16 But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord’s Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar. 17 Azariah the high priest went in after him with eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men. 18 They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is the work of the priests alone, the descendants of Aaron who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor you for this!”

19 Uzziah, who was holding an incense burner, became furious. But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead. 20 When Azariah the high priest and all the other priests saw the leprosy, they rushed him out. And the king himself was eager to get out because the Lord had struck him. 21 So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was excluded from the Temple of the Lord. His son Jotham was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the people of the land.

What a turn around in Uzziah's life. It shows early on that when he sought God for guidance he was successful. God helped him in time of war and he won his battles. Through doing this he became very powerful and also grew in pride.

Verses 16-21 show the result of his pride and how sin is dealt with in the old covenant. Praise God for Jesus and His sacrifice for my sins. I thank Him every day that I am not subject to the way sin is handled under the old covenant. I praise Jesus for suffering on the cross for me to death and being raised from the dead. He bore all my sickness, disease and sin so that I could rule and reign on earth and in heaven as a righteous child of the King. I am not full of pride when it comes to knowing where my source is for every good thing in my life. I also know the source of every bad thing in my life and it's not God.

Father I praise You today for Your plan for all mankind. I praise You because You are the creator of all that is good and You want to have a relationship with all of Your creation. I praise You Father for sending Your Son to earth to do the work of redeeming that which was lost. I thank You that through Him there is healing, wholeness, love, kindness, peace and restoration. I thank You that Your Holy Spirit is here with me to guide, direct and lead me to all truth and to the knowledge of You and Your plan for me. I praise You for Your Word and for what it means to me to be fed by Your Word each day. You are my rock and my salvation. You are my fortress and my deliverer. You are the reason that I am alive at such a time as this to be used by You for Your Kingdom to be manifest here on earth. You are my God in whom I put my trust and allegience. I pledge to You everything that I have and everything that I am or will become. I am a piece of clay to be molded by the Potter who will shape me and mold me into the vessel that will carry His Word forth to the nations. Here I am Lord! Ready to answer Your call and do what You want me to do when You want me to do it. Lead me, guide me, direct me Holy Spirit to know the next step God has for me. I praise You Jesus! Amen.