Boasting isn’t something you would usually associate with a Christian. It seems prideful and Christians are supposed to be the opposite. In Nigeria, it is not uncommon to see someone introduce himself as Barr. (Dr.) … or Chief (Engr.) …. The person wants you to immediately recognise his status in life. Addressing such a person simply as Mr. … will be considered a serious breach of protocol. Some people, including non-Christians, see this as tacky.
But is boasting always a bad thing or are there are occasions when it is not only permissible but beneficial? This is the question answered below. I feel led to do this post because we are in the last days and the world wants to shut down the voice of the Body of Christ, which is who we are. Many of us are losing the courage to identify as Christians but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be cowed and muzzled. How does boasting fit into this context? The post explains.
Different kinds of boasting
There are different kinds of boasting or rather different things one can boast about and not all of them are offensive. For example, in 1 John 2:15-17, the Bible warns us thus:
“15. Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (NLT)
Verse 16 captures the confidence behind the offensive kind of boasting, the kind that is displayed in questions like: “Do you know who I am? Do you know that I have five degrees, including a Ph.D? Do you know how rich I am? Do you know that I can feed a thousand of you for the rest of your life, that I can buy you and your entire village?”
This kind of boasting is misplaced because it is based on a bloated sense of self and a warped understanding of what we should anchor our lives on. For a person’s wealth and achievements can be stripped or rendered worthless in a flash. People have been known to lose billions in a day and if a man’s sanity is lost, his educational qualifications become useless.
Examples abound of billionaires who lost it all, either through bad investments like Sean Quinn who pumped money into Anglo-Irish bank and the shares plummeted landing him in debt, or through lawsuits for fraud as in the case of Elizabeth Holmes, who as CEO of Theranos was worth billions but Forbes estimated her net worth to be zero in 2016 and 2017.
However, boasting isn’t entirely bad. God Himself says it is not. It all depends on who or what you’re boasting about.
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”‘ – Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV)
We really have nothing to boast about in and of ourselves. But there is Someone we can make our boast in because His circumstances never change- God, the Father, represented by our Lord Jesus. His wisdom and power can never diminish. We can (should, actually) boast of what He means to us. He has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), He has gone to great lengths to save us (1 Peter 1:18-21), He has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) and He is always with us (Matthew 28:20). When the enemy roars, He is our defender (Psalm 59:16); when sickness threatens, He is our physician (1 Peter 2:24); and He is preparing a home for us with Him when this life is over.
Why we need to boast: 3 Solid Reasons
1. Boasting when rightly done is a form of praise: It is a means of declaring the incomparable attributes of God and His wondrous works. When we boast, we draw attention to the glory and magnificence of our God before a world that often refuses to acknowledge His existence and power.
2. Boasting builds our faith and that of other believers: It reminds us of our heritage in God, how much He loves us and His infinite capabilities. It reaffirms to us that we are secure in Him and we are always ahead of the enemy. And all this is because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Without that, we have no connection to God and no privileges with Him to speak of. Our redemption is what makes us special to God and entitles us to boast in Him.
“My soul makes its boast in the LORD; The humble and downtrodden will hear it and rejoice.” – Psalm 34:2 (AMP)
“But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace—His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment). And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus” – Ephesians 2:4-6 (AMP).
“13. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God – Ephesians 2:13,19 (ESV).
3. Boasting gives us victory over the enemy: The enemy prowls around to scare us, situations conspire to demoralise us, physical and spiritual forces sometimes try to subjugate us. We need to let them know that we know who we belong to- the one and only God, the Creator of the Universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords. This puts the enemy and our troubles in their place – under our feet – for our God is the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient God. That was how David defeated and killed Goliath.
“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.” – 1 Samuel 17:45-47 (KJV)
Conclusion:
We should not be silent. We should boast in the Lord our God and let everything in creation hear it. We should proclaim that He is and He alone is God. We should announce that He is loving and gracious, not capricious like the gods that others worship, which are hard or impossible to please. We should declare that He has paid the price of sin and made salvation free through His Son, Jesus Christ.
We should tell the world that because we have accepted that free gift of salvation, we are royalty (sons of daughters of the King of all the earth), we are sinless by grace, we are not afraid, we are not confused and we are more than conquerors through Christ who has loved us!
As we make these boasts and live in conformity with them, it may please the Lord to touch the hearts of those who hear and draw some unto Himself. Amen. Hallelujah!
BIBLE QUOTES FROM BIBLEHUB
But is boasting always a bad thing or are there are occasions when it is not only permissible but beneficial? This is the question answered below. I feel led to do this post because we are in the last days and the world wants to shut down the voice of the Body of Christ, which is who we are. Many of us are losing the courage to identify as Christians but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be cowed and muzzled. How does boasting fit into this context? The post explains.
Different kinds of boasting
There are different kinds of boasting or rather different things one can boast about and not all of them are offensive. For example, in 1 John 2:15-17, the Bible warns us thus:
“15. Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (NLT)
Verse 16 captures the confidence behind the offensive kind of boasting, the kind that is displayed in questions like: “Do you know who I am? Do you know that I have five degrees, including a Ph.D? Do you know how rich I am? Do you know that I can feed a thousand of you for the rest of your life, that I can buy you and your entire village?”
This kind of boasting is misplaced because it is based on a bloated sense of self and a warped understanding of what we should anchor our lives on. For a person’s wealth and achievements can be stripped or rendered worthless in a flash. People have been known to lose billions in a day and if a man’s sanity is lost, his educational qualifications become useless.
Examples abound of billionaires who lost it all, either through bad investments like Sean Quinn who pumped money into Anglo-Irish bank and the shares plummeted landing him in debt, or through lawsuits for fraud as in the case of Elizabeth Holmes, who as CEO of Theranos was worth billions but Forbes estimated her net worth to be zero in 2016 and 2017.
However, boasting isn’t entirely bad. God Himself says it is not. It all depends on who or what you’re boasting about.
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”‘ – Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV)
We really have nothing to boast about in and of ourselves. But there is Someone we can make our boast in because His circumstances never change- God, the Father, represented by our Lord Jesus. His wisdom and power can never diminish. We can (should, actually) boast of what He means to us. He has loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3), He has gone to great lengths to save us (1 Peter 1:18-21), He has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) and He is always with us (Matthew 28:20). When the enemy roars, He is our defender (Psalm 59:16); when sickness threatens, He is our physician (1 Peter 2:24); and He is preparing a home for us with Him when this life is over.
Why we need to boast: 3 Solid Reasons
1. Boasting when rightly done is a form of praise: It is a means of declaring the incomparable attributes of God and His wondrous works. When we boast, we draw attention to the glory and magnificence of our God before a world that often refuses to acknowledge His existence and power.
2. Boasting builds our faith and that of other believers: It reminds us of our heritage in God, how much He loves us and His infinite capabilities. It reaffirms to us that we are secure in Him and we are always ahead of the enemy. And all this is because we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Without that, we have no connection to God and no privileges with Him to speak of. Our redemption is what makes us special to God and entitles us to boast in Him.
“My soul makes its boast in the LORD; The humble and downtrodden will hear it and rejoice.” – Psalm 34:2 (AMP)
“But God, being [so very] rich in mercy, because of His great and wonderful love with which He loved us, even when we were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of our sins, He made us [spiritually] alive together with Christ (for by His grace—His undeserved favor and mercy—you have been saved from God’s judgment). And He raised us up together with Him [when we believed], and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, [because we are] in Christ Jesus” – Ephesians 2:4-6 (AMP).
“13. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God – Ephesians 2:13,19 (ESV).
3. Boasting gives us victory over the enemy: The enemy prowls around to scare us, situations conspire to demoralise us, physical and spiritual forces sometimes try to subjugate us. We need to let them know that we know who we belong to- the one and only God, the Creator of the Universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords. This puts the enemy and our troubles in their place – under our feet – for our God is the Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient God. That was how David defeated and killed Goliath.
“Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.” – 1 Samuel 17:45-47 (KJV)
Conclusion:
We should not be silent. We should boast in the Lord our God and let everything in creation hear it. We should proclaim that He is and He alone is God. We should announce that He is loving and gracious, not capricious like the gods that others worship, which are hard or impossible to please. We should declare that He has paid the price of sin and made salvation free through His Son, Jesus Christ.
We should tell the world that because we have accepted that free gift of salvation, we are royalty (sons of daughters of the King of all the earth), we are sinless by grace, we are not afraid, we are not confused and we are more than conquerors through Christ who has loved us!
As we make these boasts and live in conformity with them, it may please the Lord to touch the hearts of those who hear and draw some unto Himself. Amen. Hallelujah!
BIBLE QUOTES FROM BIBLEHUB
Comments
Post a Comment