CASTING YOUR CROWNS

"The twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and
worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne." - Rev.4: 10.

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by God's grace and mercy. As I dwell on His
exceeding goodness, praise often immerges from my heart and cascades off
of my lips, for He alone is worthy of all my benefits.
We should never forget that it was the Father's extraordinary love that
called us out of darkness into the light so that we may know Him and His
fellowship. God, alone, opened our eyes so that we could see the
necessity of our salvation. It was the Lord, our Provider, who imparted
to us the Holy Spirit so that we would have everything we need to live a
life of godliness. God needs no one to accomplish His purposes. Still,
He continues to show us His love by giving each of us a spiritual gift
so that we can experience true joy as we serve Him and others.
While God graciously allows us to be co-laborers with Him, still, He
does it all. In the Master's hand, we are only tools for accomplishing
His kingdom purposes. It is the Lord, who independently gives us new
life, purifies, and re-creates us. Yet, there are times when we steal
God's glory. We steal His glory when we take credit for a job well done,
while failing to acknowledge Him. We steal God's glory when we proclaim
the success of our achievements, while knowing apart from Him anything
we do is insignificant. At times, it is easy to keep the blessings for
ourselves instead of offering them back to the One to whom they belong.
I'm reminded of the Israelites as they traveled the desert. They were
desperately dependant on God for all their needs. Throughout their
journey, the Lord graciously provided for them. Their clothes and shoes
never wore out, and He even fed them bread from heaven.
The Israelites were instructed by God to gather only enough bread to eat
for each day. However, instead of trusting God to provide their daily
bread, some of them gathered extra. The next morning, they found that
the bread had rotted and was unfit to eat. Our blessings are like that.
If we hoard them for ourselves, they will only rot.
While it's acceptable to cheer for and encourage one another, don't
forget to rejoice with the Father as well. Offer a sacrifice of praise
to God for your blessings, because the victory is His alone. When we
offer Him praise with a grateful heart, He'll continue to pour victories
through us as we acknowledge the Victor. Otherwise, we will end up with
rotten blessings.
The Bible says that when we seek the praise of others, we have already
received our reward. Yet, there is a day coming when Christ shall return
bringing our rewards with Him for the good works we've done. If we have
already received our reward from men, then we won't receive His.
Wouldn't you rather acquire His reward than anything man can offer? I
know that I would! Besides, when we see our Lord face to face in heaven,
it will be our desire to bow down before the One who sits on the throne,
and with praise on our lips and gratitude in our hearts, cast all our
crowns before Him; for He alone is worthy of all our benefits.