His Throne, Not Ours

When thinking back on his 2012 Masters victory, golfer Bubba Watson remembered fondly how he celebrated by changing his son’s diaper the next morning. Shortly before the Masters that year, Bubba and his wife Angie adopted Caleb. Once he received his green jacket, he drove home that night, and early the next morning, he got up to change his new son’s diaper.

There is a powerful lesson here. No matter how good we think we are, we should never let it go to our heads.

Proverbs 8 was written from the perspective of Wisdom. In verse 13, Wisdom reminded us that hating evil is fearing – or showing reverence to – the Lord. Then Wisdom said it hates arrogant pride. In Scripture, pride is spoken about time and time again. We must avoid pride because it is worship of ourselves and not worship of the only One worthy of it – the Lord.

Idolatry is making something other than God the focus of our time, resources, and worship. It is so easy to put ourselves on the throne of our hearts. We must watch this within ourselves, especially if we do something like coach or play sports, which is public and sometimes put on a pedestal. James 4 challenges us to humble ourselves, and the Lord will lift us up as He sees fit. Letting God take control and have His place on the throne of our hearts leads to proper worship.