Daniel 4:30 –
As he looked out across the city, he said, ‘Look at this great city of Babylon! By my own mighty power, I have built this beautiful city as my royal residence to display my majestic splendor.
Oh, how soon we forget! In about a year of having a dream which Daniel interprets, it comes to pass.
The king takes all glory for himself and none for God. We do this often in our lives, we forget about the foundation God laid for us and assume the glory for ourselves. Often we get what we have prayed for and then forget to give God His credit.
I had mentioned dreams and one I do remember recently highlighted this. I use to run competitive, have been rather fast and had dreams of glory. But it never came to pass, only a few minor wins here and there. Then time, other obligations, age took their toll and 40 lbs extra took its toll. I am now battling with cramping calves after just two miles on runs, so great running is past me. Well in my dream I won the Atlanta Marathon with a 2:24 or in other words a 5:30 mile pace over 26.2 miles. In the post-race interview, this 50 plus “Christian” absorbed all the credit and not once pointed to God.
I mean really!! The only way that could happen is God giving me the power, because there would be no way I could do that on my own. But when I woke, it impacted me on how I did not mention God once. When asked “how?” I answered “hard work and luck”! Like King Nebuchadnezzar looking over his kingdom and thinking he was the reason, I failed to give credit where credit was truly due.
Now the king spends 7 years in the wilderness as a wild man, eating grass and sleeping outside. His hair and nails grew very long, adding to the crazy wild man look. Then suddenly he became clear and turned all glory to God where it should have been in the first place. The king’s dream of a tree became an analogy for what was going to happen. My dream could have been just a past fantasy resurfacing or an analogy into the future. Hopefully, if anything monumental happens in my life I learn to give credit to the Lord. For what it’s worth, Titus Mamabolo ran a 2:19 after his 50th birthday, so it is possible, just will take a miracle for me to do that at this point in my life.