Pride and Hypocrisy in Action

When Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was reigning over Judah, Shisak, king of Egypt, came and took all of the treasures of the temple and the king's house. He even took the gold shields Solomon had made to show off his wealth. Rehoboam did not want people to know that all of this was gone, so he had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones. Then, he gave them to the officers of the guard to keep them shined up and to bring them out only when he wanted to show off. (I Kings 14:26.27) This was all done in pride and it was the height of hypocrisy.

How often does our pride want us to cover up the fact that we are not as wealthy as we want others to think we are? How often do we cover up other facts about our lives because we want to put on a different outward appearance than what is true reality? Any time we do that we are seeing pride and hypocrisy in action in our lives. Please remember, the Lord Jesus hates both pride and hypocrisy. He counsels us to put away both. He wants others to know that what they see in us in public is really who we are, even when we are alone and in secret. If we act another way than the way we are, we are deceiving others, when we are supposed to live by the truth in all we do. I pray that we will all decide to put away pride and trying to cover things up in hypocrisy. Let's admit when we have weaknesses and failures; and let's just depend on the Lord to supply what we need. Then, let's give Him the glory, no matter how much or how little it is in comparison to others.

Tomorrow, I intend to read I Kings 15-17.

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