Boast

Galatians 6:14:  May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

It can be subtle and or it can be blatant, but when it happens, we all know it. Good things happen in our lives and people start to take notice. Success begets success and the Lord is plentiful and abounding in prosperity, success, and love for His children. 

I have had so many wonderful experiences in my life that are all a result of the Lord and His blessing. I am sure you have experienced the wonderment of His love in successes that can only be attributed to Him and His ways.

So often, especially during times of rejoicing and times of victory, we are posed with a choice on who gets the full credit for our success. 

The Lord will often place me in some very worldly areas like in a gym that plays graphic and explicit language songs. There are many people who are very vain, and some people may be so caught up in their competition that they focus on supplements, cutting corners, and even cheating just to have an edge.

When The Lord puts me in those positions and I have success, it can be hard to not get caught up in whose victory it is. I will often hear wonderful compliments and questions about how I did so well and it is always the Lord. I always see this scripture in my mind.

When we have an opportunity to boast over a good success, it is such a joy to boast about Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made so that we too may be crucified from the world. 

It can be easy to fall into the worldly trap of going with the flow. Sometimes when giving glory to the Lord it is not received very well in places that don't know Him and it can be very uncomfortable. 

The truth is that we have been bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20) and so we have an opportunity to give glory to the Lord with what we have been given. 

I promise that when we do, we will have more and more success even in the midst of persecution. 

It was, after all, the boldness of the first followers that moved Paul into such a rage as to hunt down the followers to persecute them. In the middle of the persecution, Paul was remade and transformed into the greatest evangelist for Jesus Christ we see in the word of God. 

We never know what our boasting about the cross of Christ will do to move others into a relationship with Him. 

When we release our worldly desire to fit in and become purely who God calls us to be, we will do much more for the Kingdom of God than we could possibly do with false motives and worldly temporal praise. Let us boast of the overcoming, resurrection power of Jesus Christ today.

Word of the day: Trust that when we boast about the Lord that He will be there to protect us in the midst of persecution. He tells us that blessed are those who are persecuted for His name. Let us rejoice in the victory we have in Jesus Christ and release the power of our witness and testimony to those who don't know Him.

Prayer of the day: Father, we ask You to put us all in situations to glorify Your name and boast about Your Son Jesus Christ. We believe that all great works come from Him, to glorify Him. Let us have the strength and guidance to speak and correct others who point to our works as our own. We praise You and love You. In Jesus' name. Amen

Read more at: www.refreshinghope.org