Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 1 Samuel 15: 17, NIV. (Emphasis provided)
Dear God, please help us, lest we forget Who is the source of our blessings. In the name of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.
How easy it is to humble ourselves before God, when we are “small in [our] own eyes,” or when we stand in need of a blessing. How difficult it becomes, when we forget who is the source of all that we are or have! This was the case of Saul, the first king of Israel. On the day of his coronation they had to go searching for him. He was hidden among the baggage. On that day, when he considered himself small, and unworthy, was the day that God exalted him. That is one of the principles of heaven: “He [or she] that humbles himself [or herself] shall be exalted.”
When Solomon was named king of Israel, in succession of his father, he saw himself as “a little child.” Therefore, when God asked him what he wanted, considering himself, not wise, he asked God for wisdom, and was given more wisdom than any person before, or after him. On that day, Solomon was at his best, and greatest. When he became great in his own eyes, was when he committed some of the most foolish acts of his life. Again and again, we see this principle at work.
There is the story of the two men who went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and “prayed to himself.” The poor publican did not even dare to raise his eyes but smote his chest and prayed: “LORD, be merciful to me a sinner.” The Bible says of the publican, that he “went down to his house justified rather than the other.”
We may get “too big in our own eyes,” for God to use us; but never too small! After all, it is God who endorses the candidates who are to be exalted!