Let us boast

"Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!" - Jeremiah 29:24 (NLT)

God is just a little crazy - he wants us to be enamored with him, to be completely enthralled by who he is. How ludicrous is that?! It's almost like he thinks he's god or something...wait...but isn't he...?

Why is God so fixated on us being completely immersed in who he is? Think about it this way: if you're completely in love with someone, don't you want them to be completely in love with you? That's the thing about love - it has to be shared to be completely experienced.

So God wants us to boast about him? What's up with that? Didn't he give us great minds, incredible talents, and truly incredible abilities? Doesn't he want us to delight in them? Look in Isaiah 29:14b, "I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding." The world is full of "wisdom", you have scientific theories, mathmatical theories and principles, counselors and psychiatrists - and God enjoys showing that their "wisdom" and "knowledge" is really child's play to him. A shepherd becomes a king, a carpenter is our pure and spotless sacrificial lamb, and a murderous religious zealot can become his most vocal and influential teacher. The pharisees, saducess and priests thought they had God figured out, and then Jesus came along. Why doesn't God always play by the rules? But there's the problem, once we figure them out, we take them as ours, and they're not our rules at all - they're his. and he can do with them as he pleases.

God isn't concerned with our rules and our standards of who's the smartest and who understands and knows the most. No, what he cares about is loving us. He gives us our strength, our wisdom, and our riches so that he might delight in them. We boast in him - we find our identities and the reality of who we are in him - and he delights in us.