Giving God the Credit

Give credit where credit is due.

Don’t you hate it when someone gets the credit for the work you did when they really didn’t contribute?

You give extra time to a project and someone else jumps onto your coattails to gain the glory.  You make a new initiative work within your organization and your superior claims the victory for the success.

You sit there with mouth agape.  All that hard work, and no one acknowledges your efforts.

Now imagine how God feels when we take credit for what is His doing, or don’t even acknowledge His hand of providence and love in our lives.

Too often we separate our work from our faith.  We leave God at church or home, thinking we have to do work on our own.  We take credit for our success, attributing it to our own efforts and luck.

How often do we say, “I was lucky.”

The truth is, we are incapable of doing anything apart from God, including our work.

“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,”  (2 Corinthians 3:5 NASB)

I recently sat down with a seasoned believer who owns and incredibly successful business.  I asked him what three things he learned through being a life-ling business owner.  Being on the other side of his life’s work he had a clarity of vision that we don’t often have in the middle of our careers.  He is a strong believer and a wise man, and here is his first thing:

“I didn’t always give God the credit.”

He tended to think that it was his hard work and efforts that brought him success and didn’t look at God as the answer.  But now, looking back over his life, he can see God’s influence on his business.  He can trace back through the years God’s direction, path to success, protection from harm and errors, and how it was God that did all of the work that brought him success.

Look back on your life, on your career.  How many times do you see the markers of God’s involvement in and orchestration of events that lead you each step of the way?  Where did you miss seeing the guidance and direct involvement that brought you to where you are today?

Whether you saw it then, or even recognize it now, God is intricately involved in every detail of your life.  You see, God actually cares about you.

• God cares about your life and your feelings
• God cares about your family and your friends
• God cares about your world and your career
• God cares about every heartbeat and every breath

Since God cares so much, you can count on Him being involved in your life.

How often have you given Him the credit?  How often have you recognized that everything you have or don’t have, everything you are or aren’t comes straight from God’s hand, or passes through His fingers of permission first?

[Tweet “Every success, every accomplishment, every challenge that grows and shapes you comes from God.”]

Pull out a sheet of paper and trace your life and career.  Where do you see God’s hand?  Can you point to times, events, and people that God used to steer you towards success.  How did the miracles slip past you?  Do you see it now?  Can you see where you took the credit for what God did in your life?

Perhaps you have a twinge of guilt for taking the credit for God’s direction and protection, for not seeing it at all during the process.  It’s okay.  It’s not too late to give credit where credit is due.  You can still give God the credit and here’s a few ways to do that:

1. Thank God

It seems simple, but it’s an important step.  Now that you have traced back God’s work in your life, thank Him for it.  Thank Him for each miracle, circumstance and person He brought into your life along the way.

You’ve listed them out, and by thanking God for them, you are giving the credit back to Him.

2. Tell your God story

I recently spoke to a group of prospective adult students for a Christian University.  I was blessed to share some of my “God Stories” about how God miraculously brought me to where I am today.  I recognized those miracles as they were happening, but I didn’t see the magnitude of their impact until I shared it with others.

Now that you can look back and see God’s hand, share it with someone else.  This open declaration of God’s power and work in your life will turn all eyes away from you and back to the true source of your success.

3. Tighten your vision

Don’t wait until the end of your life to look back on how God brought you through it.  Tighten your vision to daily retrospection.   Look back at the end of each day and find those workings of God.  This exercise has a two-fold purpose.  First, it helps you give God the credit immediately, second, it helps you to be on the lookout for God’s providence as you go through each day.  You will become more attuned to the way God works.

[Tweet “Looking for God in every circumstance helps you to recognize His presence.”]

What is God doing in your life today?

How has He guided you through the years?

Where have you taken credit that belongs to Him?

Think of a time when God worked in your life and career and share it below.