“This is what the Lord says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.” Jeremiah 9:23
Have you noticed in every romantic comedy there is always the rich, annoying guy who loves to brag about all he has? Typically he was born into money, has never worked a day in his life and is proud of it. He always tends to be shallow in his relationships, only having them with other rich and beautiful people. Of course the girl is usually engaged to him, but then her knight in shining armor shows up on a lawn mower (referring to the 1987 classic, “Can’t Buy Me Love” with Patrick Dempsey). That is exactly what God is telling us not to do, even if we have it, we’re not to boast about it.
We aren’t to boast about our wisdom, our strength or our wealth for one simple reason: whatever we have, it’s all because of the Lord. None of us can do it without Him. As Job so eloquently put it, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21 NIV). When we do boast, we are being prideful. We are forgetting the source of our blessings, we’re not giving credit where credit is deserved. If we’re going to boast, this is what we need to boast about: “But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows Me, that I Am the Lord, showing faithful love, justice and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the Lord’s declaration” (Jeremiah 9:24 CSB).
According to these verses, this is the key to overcoming pride. Instead of boasting in ourselves, boast in the Lord. Boast in what He has done for us. When we are prideful we forget the Who in the how, then we’re in for a fall. As Solomon informed us in Proverbs, pride goeth before a fall (Proverbs 16:18 CSB). As we talked about yesterday, pride is deceitful, we are easily misled by it. When we boast, we need to make sure we’re boasting about the right thing. We need to make sure we’re boasting about God.
Let’s start with this prayer:
Lord, help us only boast in You. We’re grateful for the wisdom You have given us, the strength You have given us, the wealth You have given us. All that we have, all that we are is because of You. Forgive us when we forget that. Forgive us when we boast in ourselves. Remind us that our blessings come from You. (Jeremiah 9:23 CSB). In Jesus name we pray. Amen
