There is no such thing as a self made man. There is no such thing as anyone by their own effort, without any help from anyone, becoming a success. It simply doesn’t happen. It simply isn’t true of anyone.
Everything everyone has is a gift from God. Everything you have is a gift from God. There is nothing anyone has that they did not receive. Thus every person should bow humbly before God in thankfulness and submission. Every day praise and adoration of God should flow from our hearts for the good things He’s bestowed upon us.
If you are blessed with a great job… wonderful family… success… health… money in the bank, know that it was not you who made those things happen. God saw fit in His providence to bestow them upon you!
What if you don’t have a great job… you have family issues… your health isn’t so good… and your life is full of hardship? Are you saved? Then you have every reason to praise, glorify, and celebrate the goodness of God! And keep in mind that your salvation is also a gift that is 100% from God too!
No one can tell me that had they been born in the 12th Century to a peasant family in East Asia that they would have achieved the same as being born in America in the 20th Century. No one can convince me that where they are today is 100% due to their own hard work, effort, planning, and intelligence. There are many other people who have worked harder… who planned things better… and are smarter than you are, and they failed. And no one can tell me that they are a believer in Christ primarily because THEY chose to become a Christian either.
What is the difference in all these things? Why is one successful and another not? Why does one believe and another doesn’t? God’s providence, grace, mercy, and blessing. Nothing more… nothing less.
Every person has what they have… is who they are… and believes what they believe purely, only, and simply due to God’s grace. Consider…
Deuteronomy 8:11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments and His rules and His statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…
1 Corinthians 4:7 What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
To God alone be the glory, honor, and praise!