Read Acts 8:9-24
May I Use My God-given Gifts For God’s Glory And Not My Own.
For quite some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery. This was an abomination and severe sin using demonic powers. The people in Samaria gave him the nickname “Great Power of God.” Simon loved all the attention and became very prideful and bragged about how great he was.
Later, Philip preached the good news of Jesus and the people believed in Jesus and were baptized. Even Simon, the sorcerer believed and was baptized. He followed Philip because he was astonished by the Great Signs and miracles he saw through Philip. He became jealous of Phillip and bitter because he was losing the attention of the people.
Peter and John heard of all the good things happening in Samaria so they traveled there and prayed for the new believers and they even received the Holy Spirit. Simon became even more jealous and bitter after seeing Peter and John lay hands on people and have them filled with the Holy spirit. Simon wanted to pay money to be able to do the same thing.
Peter and John saw this man’s pride and bitterness and rebuked the man and said that he would perish in his sin. Simon asked that they pray that this would not happen to him.
Simon’s Faith was not sincere for he was still captivated by the attention of man in the world rather than wanting to please God and give him all the glory. Pride and arrogance will destroy our soul if we don’t approach God with a humble and surrendered heart.
This is important to me: God has given us all gifts and talents. Some are talented with their hands, some are smart and great thinkers, some excel in sports, some are great workers, others are gifted with speaking or loving or encouraging.
Whatever gifts you have are God given. We must always give God the glory rather than try to impress people with our gifts. That opens the door to pride and arrogance. Then we use our gifts for our Glory rather than God’s glory.
