I am reading the book of Isaiah currently and I noticed this part in Chapter 10 which grabbed my attention. In it we hear about the Lord would use the King of Assyria to do his bidding. We then hear that once God was finished using the King of Assyria He would then punish him. The reason the King would be punished was because he thought that it was his own strength that gave him victory. Isaiah then tells us the kings view on what happened.

“For he says; By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their kings.
As one reaches into a nest, so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations; as people gather abandoned eggs,
so I gathered all the countries; not one flapped a wing, or opened its mouth to chirp.” Isaiah 10:13-14 (NIV)

The deception of success sprung to mind as soon as I read it. Even though this was the Lords doing the King’s success makes him think that he was the one that caused the victories.

Success is such a dangerous thing. It’s what we all want of course but in the midst of success it is so easy to start believing that you as the leader are the cause of that success. It’s vital that even in the middle of things going well that we take the time to remember the foundation and source of it all.