Before and After

Nehemiah 2:8 And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me.

Remember this guy? Good old Nehemiah. I remember one of the nuggets of that book was Nehemiah's constant willingness to give God the cred. When I read his words in v.8 (and similar words in v.18), it seems legit. However, when I often hear rappers or athletes saying the same things after a recent success, it seems a little...less than legit. What's the difference?

I think the difference is what happens before. We see in Nehemiah 2:4 that when faced with a chance to request help from the king for rebuilding Jerusalem, he paused and went to God in prayer before he went into action. Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven (Nehemiah 2:4). It was natural for Nehemiah to give God credit after a success because he had actually gone to God for help before he entered the playing field.

What about me? Am I simply paying lip service to God when something good happens, or am I setting myself up to legitimately give God the glory in everything I do? I need to pay more attention to the "before" so I can more appropriately give God the glory "after".