HOW FOOLISH

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 1:27 (NASB77) ²⁷  but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

Man’s great desires or drives are power and immortality. We men seek power is a variety of ways, politics being what I consider the heroin of ego. Anyone running for office has got to have an enormous desire to be noticed, admired and lifted up. Another is being wealthy and yet another is being physically intimidating or criminal.

Immortality is mostly expressed in procreation. Having children to carry on your nae or gene-pool is very gratifying as any grandfather well knows. Other methods would be writing a book or having a statue erecting in your honor.

Reality in the Kingdom is a whole different focus. For example, if you want to get up you need to step down. I learned early in this ministry that to have it prosper I needed to replace myself. The closer my knees are to the ground the nearer my heart, love and submission is to Him. As we exchange all we are for all He is we become lesser and He becomes larger. It gets better.

If you want to be seen, get out of sight. Remember that your born again experience has changed you to Christ with skin on. So the question is that when people get to know you do they get to know Jesus? The greatest blessing is to go about the Father’s business and not know it. This humility of storing up your secret treasure in heaven is the opposite of what we are taught as humans: He who dis with the most toys wins.

And lastly, here’s the best for the last. If you want to be great, forget yourself. I once asked John MacArthur Jr. what his earthly legacy for Jesus would be; his church, his sermons, his books, etc. He replied, “What happens when you put your hand on the surface of water?” I said, “You create a hand-print.” Then he said, “What happens when you remove your hand?” I responded, “The hand print disappears.” “Exactly!” he shot back. Wow!

How foolish for me to think I can add anything to His glory.