“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)
I guess it is something that my dad instilled in me as a child or it is something that the Lord instilled in my heart even when I did not know Him. What was it? It was that I should not boast in myself. I may have gotten this idea from a principle that my dad used to talk about. It was that a man’s work should stand on its own. In other words, no boasting would be necessary.
I lived by this principle and one day I had an issue. I was the assistant department manager in a manufacturing facility and was promised the manager’s position when the existing manager was promoted. The day came and, in the interim, I took over the department. During the two-month interim period, the department excelled in performance setting new production records in throughput and waste reduction. It happened because the machine operators wanted me to get the position.
However, then the plant general manager chose the person who was to be the new department head. It was not me. It was a man from another department that knew nothing about the process. I was to train him on how to run a gravure printing operation. Needless to say, I was miffed.
So I asked the plant superintendent why I did not get the job. He said that it was because I did not promote myself. I explained to him that I thought my work performance would speak for itself. He just shrugged his shoulders.
You see this is the way of the world. Performance is not enough. The world system is driven by pride which results in self-exaltation, self-promotion, and self-glorification. This was a severe issue in Judah during the time of Jeremiah’s ministry. The nation trusted and boasted in human wisdom, human might, and human riches. Their failure was that they found themselves caught up in the world system and thus failed to boast properly.
There is a way to boast that does not fall into the trap of the world system that the devil has instituted. It is to boast in the Lord. Look at the Lord’s words, “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.”
Years after the experience in the manufacturing facility where I was denied the promised promotion, the Lord saved me while reading a Gideon Bible in a hotel room. It took years for me to grasp this truth, that we who boast are to boast in the Lord. We are to give all glory to the Lord. He is the one who has granted us the skills in life to prosper and be successful. He even uses our failures to further develop us for the future. We must boast in Him alone for it is He who gives us wisdom, strength, and the things we have in life.
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17, ESV)
Renewing the Heart 