Our move from El Paso to Kansas has stretched me and tested my faith on an almost daily basis.
It has forced me to reconsider exactly where I am placing my joy and my hope. It has made me wonder in what I am boasting in and what I depend on when life gets hard.
The things that we boast in are the same exact things that we tend to depend on in life.
Usually, these are the things that we can control…that we have confidence in.
In Jeremiah, the Israelites were learning some hard lessons. They had depended on themselves for so long. They depended on their military power, on their human wisdom and their comfortable riches. But in the end, they lost it all and were made captives in a foreign land.
This scripture, spoken by the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, teaches three things that we cannot depend on or boast in during a time of distress. It also teaches the one thing that we can depend upon.
Three things that we cannot depend on are:
1. Wisdom…worldly wisdom can and will fail us.
2. Might…the battle does not always belong to the strong.
3. Riches…money cannot shelter us from a day of trouble.
All three of these are fleeting. We may have them today, and tomorrow they could be gone.
The one thing that we can depend on and we can boast in is that we know God, that we understand who He is and that we have a personal relationship with Him.
He alone can get us through difficulties and trials.
He alone is capable.
He alone is everlasting.
He alone practices steadfast love.
My word of the year this year has been “steadfast” and I have worked to be steadfast, but in my working, there have been many times when I have failed.
The steadfast love of the Lord never fails. It is perfect.
He alone practices justice.
And He alone practices righteousness in the earth.
Not only does He practice and display steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, He takes delight in them.
So, in times like this when my world has been turned upside down and I am fearful, there is only One that I can turn to.
And that is the Lord.
He is my joy and my hope.
He is my salvation.
My boasting is only in Him.
May you find Him to be your only joy and hope today as well!