Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
Whatever God calls you to do, remember it is His work and He is the owner of it. Whether you’re a Pastor of a church, President of a ministry, or called to minister wherever you work day to day, your ministry belongs to God.
As today’s scripture reminds us, pride will always destroy the work of God in our lives. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.
Our churches, ministries and lives, are the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. They are His vineyard, and we are just stewards of it. God planted it, Jesus sanctified with His blood, and the Holy Spirit waters it. Above all, it is God who gives the increase.
Remember the mistake made by King Nebuchadnezzar when he said “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30).
While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! (Daniel 4:31).
Just as King Nebuchadnezzar lost his kingdom due to his pride and arrogance, so we can be fired from our job of being stewards of the vineyard God put us in stewardship of.
We are here to be the watchman on the wall. To help guard and protect everything that God has put under our care. But we are no the owners, God is the owner and the One who sustains of it.
So how do we avoid this pitfall?
By not losing the awe of the work of God’s hands. By remembering that it Him who works in us to will and to do His purpose. We must never forget where we came from and all the marvelous things God has done in our lives.
As it is written “This is the Lord’s doing and it in marvelous in our eyes” Psalm 118:23.
By keeping our focus on the knowledge that it is God who works in us to do what He pleases, we will not grow haughty and prideful in our hearts.
By being in awe of all that God does in our lives each and every day, we never start to take for granted the wonders of God’s hand. We will keep the child-like amazement at all God does for us each and every day. We won’t fail to notice even the smallest miracle He does in our lives.
That is where those who have fallen from grace (as they say) and lost their ministries have gone wrong.
They took for granted all the wonderful thins God has done in their lives and start to slowly take credit for all the success in their lives and begin to say in their hearts “Has not my hands done all these things? Haven’t I done them by my sheer will and determination?”
In that moment, they forget God and start doing things their way and to do their will and not God’s.
And that is when God fires them from the stewardship of the vineyard they were given the stewardship of and removes them from the vineyard in disgrace. Or sometimes He destroys the vineyard they had the stewardship of entirely.
Sadly, we’ve seen this too often and it destroys the lives of those around the fallen steward, leaving people devastated in their wake and causes the Kingdom of God to be mocked.
So let us take today’s verse to heart and never lose the awe of God. Let us never forget that it is by God’s Grace that we were given the stewardship of the vineyard – that is the ministry – were given the stewardship of. Let us never take for granted the work of God in our lives or start taking the credit for all that He is doing in our lives.
Let us keep our eyes on the Author and the finisher of our faith. Let us always give Him the Glory due His name.