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"Praise to God, or Proud of Self?" "Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, GOD LEFT HIM, TO TRY HIM, THAT HE MIGHT KNOW ALL THAT WAS IN HIS HEART." (2 Chronicles 32:31) (caps mine for emphasis)After flexing their muscles by defeating all the surrounding nations, that ole big loud-mouth Sennacherib, who was the king of Assyria, came with his mighty army with his sights set on Jerusalem as his next victim. He taunted Hezekiah and the entire city of Jerusalem, but Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah prayed and cried out to Heaven and their voices were heard, and again, it was God and God alone who gave the victory to His people. Oh, the work of God in the land of Judah that day was truly amazing!Then the Babylonians got wind of what was going on there and we read where they sent some ambassadors to Jerusalem to see for themselves what God was doing. Arriving at Jerusalem, God did something unusual in the above verse concerning Hezekiah. He left! God left? That's right, God left Hezekiah to handle this little test on his own.Make no mistake about it, the Lord knew what was in the heart of Hezekiah. The Lord had done a mighty work in this man's life and now He was going to provide Hezekiah an opportunity to give God all the praise and glory in the presence of those from Babylon. What would Hezekiah do? Would he bring honor to God's Holy name and praise Him for the manifold blessings he had received from His hand?Sad to say, we read where Hezekiah proudly showed and boasted of his own accomplishments and what he had accumulated to the Babonians. That despicable display on Hezekiah's part is recorded for us back in 2 Kings 20:13, "And Hezekiah hearkened unto them, and showed them all the house of HIS precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of HIS armor, and all that was found in HIS treasures: there was nothing in HIS house, nor in all HIS dominion, that Hezekiah showed them not." (caps mine on HIS which is found 5 times in that verse.)Meanwhile, I believe God sat quietly on His Throne in Heaven and listened, but NEVER a word came from the lips of Hezekiah mentioning the name of the One from Whom all blessings flow! How sad! How sad indeed when I think how God's gracious and giving heart must have hurt that day.Following those events of great victory in our lives, God, in His infinite wisdom, brings about those tests to see how we will respond? During those times, do we praise Him for His blessings, or do we, like Proud as a Peacock Hezekiah, boast of our own wisdom, wealth, and work?Friends if our life revolve around ourselves because of who WE are, what WE have, and how WE did it, instead of who HE is, and what HE has, and how HE did it, then shame on us! Let's not be puffed up with pride.