No One Can Boast

 I just love this truth about true Christianity.  I have no room to boast.  The longer I am a Christian, the more amazing experiences I have with Christ, the more I realize that this fact is absolutely true.

               Do you ever look at yourself and wonder: Was that really me?  Did I really think that way?  Did I actually write that?  Did I stop obsessing over that person who wronged me?  Did I love my enemy sincerely and honestly from my heart?  If you can live out the Christian life without being amazed at yourself, then I’m not sure that what you are living is truly the Christian life.

               It is definitely not about me and about what I can do.  God seems to call me to experiences far beyond my human limitations.  Every time I am used by Him in this world, I am even more amazed by what a powerful God He is.  If He can overcome my utterly selfish nature and allow me to give beyond myself to another human being, then He is certainly a powerful God.

               This month I am living in the midst of a tornado of good and energy-draining events in my life.  They are way beyond my ability to accomplish.  God sends others to help me in physical ways, and I’m truly grateful.  I recognize it is those who are constantly praying for me and for God’s will to be done that are the wind beneath my wings of accomplishment.  I absolutely know firsthand that what is being required of me is beyond my ability.  I would laugh at the prospects if I didn’t believe that God was calling me to these tasks.  What He has called me to do, He will do through me.  I just have the privilege of being amazed as He does His work through me.

               From the very beginning of his ministry, Paul clearly understood that there was absolutely nothing in and of himself that he should boast.  He put away all the boasting of a pharisaical life in the past.  It was wiped clean after Christ moved into his soul.  All religious boasting was flushed out and replaced with a continual remembrance of Christ’s cross.  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.  Paul’s reasons to boast were crushed when his heart belonged fully to Christ and no longer to the world.

               Throughout his transformation in Christ he continued to boast but never in himself.  He boasted in Christ who enabled him to persevere during his sufferings (2 Corinthians 12).  He boasted in those he witnessed who had the same Christ transformation in their lives that he experienced (those from Corinth, Phillipi, and Thessalonici specifically).  When he boasted of Christ, he boasted of Christ’s work in the hearts of those he saw were transformed through Christ’s powerful work of the cross.

               Paul lived his new life in Christ with a continual boast.  His boasting turned from himself to Christ and the work of Christ he recognized in other people. 

               What a lovely way to boast.  Boasting in Christ turns a lot of hot air into a warm embrace.  This new day gives me numerous opportunities to boast in Christ.  Every roadblock I will encounter is a chance to discover how Christ can strengthen me to overcome.

               I titled this devotional so that no one can boast.  It is not a matter of not boasting but of boasting in Christ alone and recognizing the truth that there is no other boast that exists in this world.

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