{"id":21300,"date":"2017-02-19T00:10:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T08:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=10086"},"modified":"2017-02-19T00:10:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T08:10:32","slug":"february-19-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/02\/19\/february-19-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"February 19, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cI said to the boastful, \u2018Do not deal boastfully.\u2019 And to the wicked, \u2018Do not lift up the horn. Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck.\u2019\u201d<\/em> Psalm 75:4-5<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Toot Your Own Horn<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I grew up in an extended family where critical spirits were in abundance. People were judged by their clothing, appearance, academic degrees, success, the \u201clook\u201d of their marriages, money, homes, and cars. We were all \u201cjust\u201d middle class\u2014but others were snubbed if they didn\u2019t measure up in ways that were considered important.<\/span><\/p>\n

To her credit, my mother did a wonderful job of breaking through these walls, though my father continued finding fault with anyone or anything \u201cless than.\u201d Mom befriended immigrants in our neighborhood, invited known bullies over to decorate Easter eggs with us kids, and made handmade gifts at Christmastime. She was not ashamed to shop at Woolworth\u2019s instead of Macy\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an adult, I\u2019ve had to learn the hard way that I, too, have a critical spirit. I find fault with others easily, and have only recently begun to see how I perpetuated this spirit in my now-grown children. The Spirit has worked long, hard years in me to bring me to repentance, brokenness, and humility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having a critical spirit is another way of saying that I am a proud person\u2014and God hates pride. Pride manifests not only in fault-finding, but in having thoughts such as, \u201cThis church\/family\/neighborhood\/workplace is lucky to have me and my gifts.\u201d It makes us defensive and unapproachable, quickly blaming others for wrongs so we will be found without fault. Proud people want to be recognized for accomplishments, and they tend to view others with a wary eye. \u201cWhat did she REALLY mean by that?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In our verse above, it is God Who is speaking. He is telling those who boast\u2014the proud\u2014to STOP IT RIGHT NOW. He was telling us to stop tooting our own horn. The next verse confirms this: \u201cDon\u2019t lift up the horn.\u201d<\/em> Literally, this means, \u201cDon\u2019t lift the head proudly like a horned animal; do not speak with a stiff neck.\u201d Picture it: if we hold our head high for very long, we will get a stiff neck! Then we can properly be called a stiff-necked person.<\/span><\/p>\n

No, God wants us to be pliable, flexible, willing, and humble. Nowhere in Scripture is a stiff neck praised. Proud people are unwilling participants in God\u2019s plans, for they bow to no one\u2019s will but their own. Their heads are held high, where they can look down on others from their position \u201cabove.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

God hates it when we assume a position \u201cabove\u201d others. Only He is above. Only He is exalted. Only He is high and lifted up. Only He is worthy of accolades and admiration. We cannot and must not sit on His throne.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod, forgive us for being proud, stiff-necked, fault-finders. You alone are worthy of praise for good works, for victories, for successes. Anything we possess came from Your hand. We bow our knee before You. In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI said to the boastful, \u2018Do not deal boastfully.\u2019 And to the wicked, \u2018Do not lift up the horn. Do […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5xy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}