Forgetting God’s grace

It’s amazing to me that after all God had done for Hezekiah, that he still forgot God’s grace in his life.  It says in 2 Chronicles 32:25

But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.

In what way was Hezekiah proud?  After his illness, envoys from Babylon came to visit because they’d heard all that God had done in extending his Hezekiah’s life. 

But instead of giving all the glory to God, Hezekiah instead pointed to all his riches, his gold, silver, his armory, and all of his treasures.

And so Isaiah confronted him saying,

Hear the word of the Lord Almighty:  The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. 

Nothing will be left, says the Lord.  And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.  (Isaiah 39:5-7)

It would be a good guess that the Babylonians took note of the wealth of Israel on this visit, and that it was this visit which planted the seed for their later invasion of Judah.

But more than that, Hezekiah missed an opportunity to share the grace of God with the Babylonians that they might turn from their sin and follow the living God.

That’s what happens when we forget God’s grace in our lives.  We become proud of all that we have and have accomplished and forget it was from God that we received all these things. 

Not only that, when others start to notice God’s blessing in our lives, we start pointing to ourselves instead of God.  And as a result, people become impressed with us instead of the God we serve.

How about you?  When others look at you, are they impressed with what you’ve accomplished?  Are they impressed with what a great person you are? 

Or when they see you, do they start to hunger for the God who lives within you?

Let us not forget God’s grace in our lives.  Rather let us always remain humble and thankful, eager to share the grace that we’ve received with those around us.