what do you boast in

Sorry I am not that good at keeping up with this thing, I am trying to get better! Life here is good, hard as always but good because in all things God is good period. Classes have been very convicting lately and also stressful. It can be hard not to get caught up in the grades here and hard to remember that I am privileged to be learning what I am learning and it is not an obligation but a blessing, it is something that I have to constantly remind myself.

Last night though I really experienced worshiping through my school work. I was going over notes through class and felt very refreshed and also convicted at times when reading my notes, the professors here don't just teach facts they teach application so as I was going over that I felt God speaking to me in new ways. I was looking over systematic notes about knowing God and how that is the most important thing in life, the one thing that defines us is if we know God or not. We become like the thing or person we adore and love, so I started to think about what I love and if that is God or if something else has taken the front seat. In my notes it was saying that scripture points to God being the most important thing we know so I decided to actually look up the scripture references and at that point it changed from studying to meditating on the glorious truths of God, praying through scripture, worshiping God and thanking Him for the opportunity to study at this school.

The verse I really mediated on before going to Philippians 3 which is related and reading through that was :
Jeremiah 9:23-24
This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,for in these I delight," declares the LORD.

What an amazing passage and a convicting passage. So I started to think about what I boast in, what do I delight it because what we delight in we usually boast in, where does my satisfaction and identity come from is it in knowing God or anything else. Notice that the first part does not say it is bad to have wisdom, or strength it is just bad when that becomes what we boast in and we put it before God.

Then I went on to the next part about how we should boast in knowing God, and I thought about that for a long time and prayed through that...then my thoughts took me to this, knowing God and understanding him could become a source for us to boast in ourselves if we are not careful. We could think we are better then the person sitting next to us because we know God and they don't or we understand truth more then they do. This can happen if we do not recognize that us knowing God has nothing to do with us but with God allowing us to truly know him and understand him. So then I started thinking about my salvation and how it came from nothing I did but from God giving me saving faith in him, and opening up my eyes to him. praise be to God that I have done nothing and can not do anything, if it was based on what I did or what I know apart from him then I would be going to hell.

So today as you are going about your day ask yourself what do I boast in? Where is my focus in life? Is knowing God the most important thing in my life