A Self-Made Man?

Society is full of people who speak as though they made themselves what they are. Churches are too. It is so easy to think that it was our own effort or ability that brought us to where we are.

It was not.

Any good thing in our lives is because of God’s goodness to us. He alone is the Source and He uses many channels.

The only thing I can make is a mess! Every blot on my life was made by me. Every beauty in my life was made by Him who does all things well. The hymn writer said it beautifully:

Naught have I gotten, but what I’ve received.
Grace hath bestowed it, since I have believed.
Boasting excluded; pride I abase.
I’m only a sinner saved by grace!

Paul said it best: “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)

He created us in the beginning. He shapes us all along. He will form us into His perfect image someday. There are no self-made men – only God-made men.

Did you know that there is only one thing in Scripture we are told to make of ourselves? It is said of the Lord Jesus Christ that, “he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of our servant, and was made in the likeness of man” (Philippians 2:7). The Apostle Paul followed this example when he testified, “I made myself servant unto all” (1 Corinthians 9:19).

Do you want to make something of yourself? Make yourself a servant. Make yourself nothing. Make yourself low. That is the only thing you an I can do successfully. And as you make yourself a servant, God will make you into all that He wants you to be.

As a boy I remember singing, “He’s still working on me, to make me what I ought to be! It took Him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be! He’s still working on me.”

Stop trying to make yourself what you want to be. God is making you what He created you to become. And His work is most quickly done when we make ourselves servants.

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3).