Focus Upon Him

We cannot enter God’s presence through our own efforts. If we think we can, we deceive ourselves. We’re like the early Babylonians.

These people found a plain in Shinar and settled there. (Gen. 11: 1b NIV) Because there were no stones on the plain that they could use for building homes, they became inventive and learned to make bricks. Their achievement filled their hearts with pride and they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered. . . . (v. 4a)

If we focus on our achievements, we’ll have no time for God. We won’t recognize our problems or our sin, and we won’t focus upon Him.

When the people of Babylon became proud, they no longer recognized their human limitations and they no longer humbled themselves before God. They focused upon themselves and what they could do. Eventually, the thing they tried to avoid happened to them. They were scattered. And their tower did not reach heaven.

Originally published July 1, 1988.