Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

© by Joyce C. Lock

Have you ever attended a church service and thought, "Yuck! This church is dead."  Then attended elsewhere and thought, "Wow! God is there," as you felt personally touched by His presence?

You may have noticed one bragging about how their wonderful schemes got them through difficult situations, and thought them a jerk.  Though, you might've been reminded of God's love when someone spoke, with a quiver in their voice, of how God helped them to make it through.

Maybe someone made a list of everything they've ever done for you, as if you owed them.  But when someone said, "You can thank me by loving others in need,"  it became a pleasure to both give and receive.

Perhaps you've experienced someone pointing at your imperfections in anger or rattling off 25 Bible verses so loudly you didn't hear a word they said.  Yet when someone came off their pedestal to meet you where you were and taught you how to overcome your weakness, fear, and insecurity, you were set free.

Those who've become the difference have learned a very special secret to their success: give credit where credit is due (1 Ch. 29:10-13).  Once we get that straight, it's OK to feel warm inside when God allows us to play a small part in it.

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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.