Let God Get The Credit

17 Aug

“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”  ~ Unknown

This is a very interesting quote upon which I have stumbled.  It has a lot of truth to it.  It also has a lot of irony involved with it.  Why do I say that?  Well, this quote appears to be attributed to many different people.  Who gets the credit for it?  Too many to name.  There have been so many variations and they involve attributions to Ronald Reagan, Fr. Strickland, and Ralph Waldo Emerson just to name a few.  So, to be safe, I just tagged it “Unknown”.

Does it really matter what person said it?  Is not the truth behind it the more important matter?  We should not care who gets the credit as long as good gets done.  As long as the right thing happens, why should it matter if we get the credit or someone else gets the credit?  Ultimately, the One who gets the credit should be God.  He is the One who gives us all good things.  He is the One who gives us what we need in order to accomplish good in this world.  We should be working for Him and not for our own glory.

That is where too many people get hung up.  They begin doing good for others but oftentimes get trapped by the praise and thanks that accompany the doing of good deeds.  They get thanked or praised and begin to think that they are the ones who deserve all the glory.  Guess again.

When good gets done, there are often two groups of people: the glory-seekers and the pay-me-backers.  The glory-seekers do what they do in order to get some kind of recognition.  The pay-me-backers do what they do in order to be repaid some day.  They often remind people, “Remember when I did such-and-such for you?”  Both types of people lose their way because they fail to give credit where credit is due: to God.

I know this might seem rather basic and I might seem to be harping the point.  But we must remember that God is what is most important in our lives.  We should live for God and not ourselves.  We should build up God’s Kingdom and not our own.

FAITH ACTION:  In all that you do today, try not to take the credit for it but give the credit, rather, to God.