Boasting and Repentance

image courtesy of Allposters

"We will work that all out, I've no doubt. Where there's a will there's a way."

I'm hanging my head in shame. Those words were straight from my heart, to my fingers, to my blog in my last post. Matthew 12:34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Why do we need to be in God's word daily? Because He speaks to us through it. He teaches us. He shows us our need for a savior. Without it, we think we are doing fine. With it, we know we are nothing, and we need His grace.

In my morning Bible study yesterday, I read and underlined the following. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8:17-18

I also read and underlined this: Know therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Deuteronomy 9:6

I wasn't convicted of anything at the time, but the verses stuck out to me enough to make me underline them. However, this morning, those verses came back to me. How dare I say that if I work hard enough, I can do anything? Think about it. We are fed that lie by the world constantly, but there are plenty of men who have given their all to something, and still can't make ends meet. They have no worldly success. How am I any different than them? How am I better? I'm not.

I should have said, "If the Lord wills, He will make a way, of this I am sure." Come now, you who say , "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16


Hebrews 12:5-11

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

I felt such relief when I came before the Lord, humbled, and asked for His forgiveness from this sin. Be in the Word. Daily. You will hear His voice!