By Him actions are weighed

"Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth, For the LORD is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed. – 1 Samuel 2v3

Every government has a department that oversees weights and measures. Their job it to make sure that a gram is a gram and an ounce is an ounce. In the old Imperial measure days there was a legal pound and legal foot which set a standard. A metre was originally one ten millionth of the distance between the equator and the North Pole. Now it is legally the distance between two marks on a platinum iridium bar at 0 degrees Celsius.

Weights and measure are important. The Bible tells us that a false balance is an abomination to the Lord and that He delights in just weights. Can you imagine the chaos is every shop could determine how much a kilogram was or every country decided how long a mile was? The old Irish mile caused mass confusion to visitors because it was not the same as an English mile. For a long time here driving time was hard to gauge because distances were in kilometres and speed limits were in miles per hour.

Anyhow, back to our topic. How do we apply weights and measures to our spiritual lives?

Hannah knew that the Lord was the only true standard for weighing our actions. It is too easy for us to be the weighers of our own actions. Sometimes we allow others to be the weigher of our actions. There can be as many standards of weight and measures as there are people, but there is only one true standard. If we weigh our actions by our own standards we will always skew the results to make sure the balance works. If we weigh our actions by the standards of others we will be forced to change constantly.

I have a situation that describes this well. I hold to a particular view based on the teaching of the Bible that I am totally convinced is the truth. A whole crowd of men I know used the hold the same view, but a vast number of them have changed their view. All of a sudden, I am the one out of balance because they changed.

God is the weigher of our actions. May we compare our lives to His standard and find our balance there.