Living in Humility (2 Chronicles 26:16)

But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God.
– 2 Chronicles 26:16

What a verse describing Uzziah, who was such a strong, verse 16 here says, and successful king who sought the Lord and glorified God in so many different ways. But then he became proud to his destruction, which led him to unfaithfulness to God, specifically to entering into the temple, to burn incense on the altar of incense when he wasn’t supposed to.

2 Chronicles 26:16 contrasts human pride with godly dependence.

But I really want to hone in and lead us to pray in light of this sequence that verse 16 outlines. “He was strong”. That’s the first picture that led to two, him becoming proud, that led to three, his destruction. Strength that leads to pride, that leads to destruction.

Is that possible in your life in any way for that which is good? Strength is good, and strength was a good picture in Uzziah’s life. But is it possible for anything that is good in your life to lead to pride in your life? To lead, to trust in yourself, to lead to confidence in yourself? Let’s just put it out there. Even as I use that language, this is what the world tells us to do: to be confident in ourselves, in our own strength, in our own resources, “be self-sufficient”.

But this is where the Bible just confronts us with totally different truth, that we are not self-sufficient and we don’t need to be self-confident. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have sufficiency, and it doesn’t mean we don’t have confidence. It’s that our confidence is found in God, in Christ in us, in his strength in us, and our sufficiency is found in God, not in ourselves.

2 Chronicles 26:16 shows that our sufficiency must come from God.

And so, how do we avoid pride that then leads to destruction, to realize self-sufficiency, self-confidence leads to destruction? How do we live with confidence in God with our sufficiency in God? And there are a lot of answers to that question, but one of the main answers is prayer. This is where I just want to remind us that prayerlessness is pride.

If we are not praying, we are not seeking God. If we’re not asking God for help, we are essentially saying, I can do this without God, and it’s not true. We need God as our sufficiency. We need God as our confidence, and it’s the Bible that acknowledges that prayer is one of the primary ways we express humility before God that leads to life, and prayerlessness as an expression of pride that leads to destruction. And so I want to lead us to pray in light of this sequence.

God, we pray for humility in each of our lives. God, I pray for this in my life. I pray this over every one of my brothers and sisters who are praying with me right now. We ask for humility. Please help us to see you are our Sufficiency. You are our only hope for confidence. God, help us not to trust in ourselves. Help us to trust in you. We pray for strength from you.

This verse teaches us to live in humble dependence on God.

God, we pray for all kinds of good things from your hand. We pray that as you provide those things, you would guard us from pride and keep us from destruction. Oh God, I just pray for humility over every facet of our lives, that we would live in humble, prayerful dependence on you at all times, trust in you at all times, knowing that this is where life is found, in you. The God of the universe being our Helper, our Sufficiency, our Confidence, all of our trust, all of our hope in you and not in ourselves.

God, help us to live countercultural to all the messages this world is throwing at us. And God to proclaim this good news to others that you can find confidence in God, that is far greater than you can find confidence in yourself. Help us to encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ today with your sufficiency. And God help us to lead others to place their faith in you, to place their trust in you.

Prayer for the Jaiswal Bania People

God, we pray specifically today for the Jaiswal Bania people of India. For 137,000 Hindi-speaking men, women, and children who’ve never heard the good news of your love in Jesus, the sufficiency of Jesus to save them from their sins. Lord, we pray that the gospel would spread to the Jaiswal Bania people. That they might be reached with the good news of the one true God, who alone is worthy of all our trust, worthy of all of our confidence. God, please help us to grow in humility today. And please guard us from pride and the destruction that comes from it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.