Recognizing God’s Help

INTRODUCTION

Who hasn’t heard of SpaceX and Elon Musk in this generation? As phenomenal as SpaceX is, long before Elon Musk came to the scene with his extraordinary ideas, there was a teenage king who did mind-blowing exploits. This king was Uzziah, and he was the tenth king of Israel after the tragic split of the nation into two during Rehoboam’s time. Uzziah means “My strength is in Yahweh”, and he lived up to the meaning of his name at the beginning of his reign. As a young ruler, Uzziah was known for a lot of good things and especially for his love for God. He started out by seeking the Lord and doing what was right in His sight. (2 Chronicles 26:4-5).

UZZIAH’S EXPLOITS

Uzziah had a good mentor, Zechariah, who taught him the ways of the Lord. As a result of his excellent relationship with the Lord, God gave him brilliant and extraordinary ideas and success. He conquered the Philistines, Arabians and Mehunims. The Ammonites, who were supposed to be enemies of Israel, even gave him gifts. Some of his extraordinary exploits included building towers in Jerusalem and in the desert. As a lover of husbandry, Uzziah also dug many wells in diverse places, even in areas where water wasn’t easy to come by.

In addition to these, he had a great army and was one of the few kings that prepared his weapons of war himself. He had skilled men who invented magnificent engines that terrified Israel’s adversaries. Indeed, Uzziah was a phenomenal king who did wonders because he loved and sought the Lord with all his heart. Uzziah enjoyed the marvellous help of the Lord, and he became famous and strong as a result of God’s help. God’s help made Uzziah a force to reckon with. It made him a king who did marvellous and extraordinary exploits. (2 Chronicles 26:15b).

UZZIAH’S END

It is important to note that every man with extraordinary ideas got them from God. God is the source of brilliant ideas, and often, men fail to acknowledge Him as their source to their utmost detriment, as we learn from the life of Uzziah. As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, the Lord made him prosper in all that he did, but unfortunately, he became so big in his own sight that he forgot his source. The Scriptures record this:

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. 2 Chronicles 26:16

Instead of Uzziah’s strength to draw him closer to God, the giver of strength, it took him away from God and puffed his heart up. Suddenly, Uzziah felt he was wise enough to stand in the office of the priest. As the king, he forgot the King of kings who made him who he was and stepped into an office God had not called him into. That presumptuous and proud action cost him everything. His pride led to his downfall, and the once revered king of Isreal became a leper until the day of his death, and his son took over the throne while he was still alive. His story is very tragic, and it has many lessons to teach us.

1. Every man is made by God. No man is self-made. God made you who you are, and it is wise that you acknowledge Him.
2. God’s help is what makes a man strong, wise, brilliant and sought after. Without God’s help, every man is like a leper; unattractive, rejected and despicable.
3. As long as a man seeks the Lord, God will prosper him, but the moment he stops seeking the Lord, he returns to zero point.
4. Pride will always make a man God’s enemy. God resists the proud, and when God fights a man, he is doomed.
5. No matter how high God raises us, we must never enter an office that God has not called us into. We must learn to stay in our place and glorify God in what He has called us to do.

There was a time when the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a fast-growing church with her headquarters in Nigeria, Pastor E.A.Adeboye, said that God told him that the day he becomes proud, He would wipe him out of the earth and make his name completely forgotten. Narrating the experience in this article, he said,

“I will remind you of what happened after Lekki 98′ one of the biggest programs we ever held. We came back here at night. I was out praising God for the mighty things He had done between 2:00 am and 3:00 am, I knew the spot where I was. He said son, bend down quickly. I bent down, and He told me to draw the figure of a man in the sand, and I quickly did. And He said, stand up, I did. He said to wipe out what I had drawn with my leg, and I did. He said, “son, if you ever forget who is in charge, I will wipe you out, and nobody will ever remember you came into the world.”

Uzziah forgot the one in charge of his life, exploits and tremendous successes, and God took him away from the scene in a disgraceful manner. To keep our hearts constantly humble before the Lord, we must learn to do the following:

1. Acknowledge Him for all He has done and in all our ways:  When we openly and verbally acknowledge God as our source and sustainer, we shut the gates of our hearts against the whispers of pride.
2. Thank Him for everything: Nothing is too big or too small to appreciate God for. Appreciating Him puts Him at the forefront. It makes us see that we couldn’t have gotten that job, done that house chore or crossed that busy road without His help.
3. Pray always: Communicating with God in everything and at every time reveals our need for Him, and when we are constantly aware of our need for God, we won’t give room for pride.
4. Always remember your days of little and humble beginnings: Uzziah was quick to forget his early days, and this made him open the door wide for pride to enter. When you remember where God picked you from consistently, you will never allow pride into your heart. God is the maker of men, as stated earlier, and no man can become great without His help.

In conclusion, you are what you are by the grace of God, and it is essential and wise for you never to forget that.  The day you become too big to thank God for all He has done for you, He will make you too insignificant to be remembered. Many giants have fallen and disappeared from the scene because they forgot who was truly in charge. Never forget to acknowledge the help of the Lord at every junction of your life, and always remember that your excellence, success, gifts and exploits have been made possible because God, in His infinite mercy, chose to help you. We will always be earthen vessels entrusted with the great treasures of the Lord, and we must never forget that all the glory belongs to Him, not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7).