Jeremiah 9:23-24
“Thus says the LORD, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this: That he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the LORD.”
Beloved,
Let’s start by establishing some hard, but necessary truths:
- You cannot boast in your intelligence. Both God’s Word and the human experience- your own included, (IF you will be honest with yourself)- faithfully demonstrate the limitations and unreliability of human understanding. Praise God for all of your years on earth or at the university or seminary, and no matter how many books you have read or sciences you have studied, you can never be all knowing.
- You cannot boast in your strength. If you like, sleep at the gym. No matter how strong or physically fit you are… you are not very powerful.
- You cannot boast in your own riches. Money answereth all things, yes (Ecclesiastes 10:19). But those answers have limits and fluctuate in value. Riches- no matter how much, can only do so much.
So, what do you have that you can truly boast about? If you consider yourself a child of God, there is only one thing we have to boast about and that is the privilege knowing God. Beloved, you can understand God and doing so is glorious.
There may be a day that any or all of the areas we talked about- our intelligence, strength, even our resources may proffer some semblance of stability. But eventually, that stability will come crashing down. It’s just a matter of time.
Beloved, only God is eternally stable, and He desires that His children find their stability in Him. How do we, as His children, find that stability? We can only find it in Him. But take note- we will not enjoy stability in Him if we do not take our time to understand and grow in Him in His totality. We cannot choose to learn from and enjoy Him as loving Father, alone. We cannot afford to decide that we only need to understand the Provider dimension of Jesus Christ. We must know Him as much more. For now, understand this: Do not dare be “…wise in your own eyes”. Do not think “…too highly of yourself”. Such warnings are found all throughout scripture in both the old and new testament (Proverbs 3:7; Romans 1:22; Romans 12:16; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20).
When we do not acknowledge God as the Rock of our salvation, we will waiver. It is inevitable! He is our firm foundation, and we acknowledge this by acknowledging Him, in His TOTALITY. We will speak more on the totality of God next time.
Until then, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. I call you blessed. I call you NATIONS.
