May 1 - Who Is The Greatest?

  Read today’s texts first: 1 Chronicles 14,15; Psalms 132; Matthew 18

MAXIMize YOUR DAY
We can only be great when we completely
depend on the One who is the greatest!

Muhammad Ali was mentioned in the news recently - on April 28, in 1967, Ali dodged the war draft for religious reasons. A year before his conversion to Islam he said these now famous words: “I must be the greatest. I showed the world. I talk to God every day. I know the real God. I shook up the world, I’m the king of the world. You must listen to me. I am the greatest!”

I’m sorry Ali, but if you knew the real God you wouldn’t have boasted “I am the greatest” and you certainly wouldn’t have embraced Muhammad as your god. Every man worshipped as a god is now dead; every man-made statue once worshipped as a god was never alive. But the one, true God, who created all of us and this world we live in, is not dead. He’s alive and well, and He stands alone as the Greatest!

In our OT reading today, the Philistines learned that the hard way! They had heard about David’s coronation as King and decided to assert themselves, mustering their “full force” against him at Baal Perazim, which ironically means “God has broken through.” The true God did indeed break through and the Philistines were routed. They abandoned their gods there, and David gave orders to burn them in the fire (14:12). David was consistently successful in battle and in life because he consistently “inquired of the Lord” (14:10,14).

David illustrated what Jesus was saying in our NT reading. The disciples aspired to greatness, as do we (18:1). Unlike Ali, we know God is the greatest, but we still want to be among the greatest in His Kingdom. Jesus responded to them, and to us, by holding a little child and saying, whoever takes the lowly position of this child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (18:4). The great quality of child-like faith is complete trust. Like David, we need to realize we can only be great when we completely depend on the One who is the greatest!

“Lord, You stand alone as the greatest, the real God, the King of the world. Any great plans You have for me depend on how much I will depend on You!”