We have storehouses of food and supplies, emergency responders in case something threatens our abundance, and rooms or closets full of food in our homes.
We have advanced medicine and doctors specialized and trained to cure sickness and alleviate suffering. We are constantly working on cures for everything under the sun, and we have household remedies for almost any imaginable ailment that are actually quite helpful.
We could go on.
But Americans have a crippling sense of insecurity. Despite all of this, we don't feel confident within our hearts. Many feel vulnerable and scared. We struggle with anxiety.
And those who don't struggle with anxiety often paper over their insecurity with a false show of bluster. We lack confidence and so we over-do it with exercise, with intellectual pursuits, with social climbing, with career, with money, with religion, with sex, with whatever we think will fix our problems. And some even come to feel quite secure in these things for a time, despising the insecure and boasting in their own confidence success, strength, etc.
Where do you put your confidence? What is your boast? Is it your physical achievements? Your career? Your religious practice? I may not have _________, but at least I have more ___________ than others.
All such boasting is foolish and evil.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."*
Where is it written? In Jeremiah 9.
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.
There is one appropriate place for your confidence and boast. It is in God and in his mercy towards you in Christ. Some of you will read this and think I am saying it is in your religious practice. This is a deadly mistake. Your spirituality, your morality, your religious practice are useless places to put your confidence and boast. They will not hold up on the day of accounting. Furthermore, putting your confidence in these things will make you a terrible person to be around, constantly trying to prove how spiritual, how moral, or how religious you are.
Deep down you know that you are not safe, that your own resources are not enough. Deep down you know that you don't really add up. If you have convinced yourself that this isn't true, then you need to be humbled, and you will be eventually.
But Jesus offers good news for those who will lay down their vain boasting in their own resources. He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied..."
Jesus is the only safe boast, he is the only true shelter in this storm. You were made to rest in him. When your boast and confidence are in him, you can be truly confident because he is mighty enough to keep you, and he is merciful enough to love you forever in spite of the worst in you. And when you are this safe in him (even if in danger from every side) you can be humble and confident at the same time.
The only way to get here is to repent of confidence in our strengths. It is one thing to repent of our weaknesses, the things we know are deplorable in us. Coming to Jesus involves repenting of confidence even in our best, even in what is most commendable about us. It doesn't mean not using our gifts and strengths, it just means not putting our confidence in them. And when we repent like this, our gifts are free to be what they were made for, our strength finds its proper place, and our confidence is unshakable.
What glorious freedom there is in Jesus.
*1 Cor. 1
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