Tag: boast

“1…2…3…Who’s Glory?”

Today’s reading is 2 Corinthians 10.

My oldest son is wrapping up his 12U baseball season, and I’ve had the privilege of leading his team in devotionals throughout the year since he was 8U. My younger son just started 8U this season, and we started the same with his team with them finishing last week. Using a devotional from The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the main theme of the season was around playing for God’s glory, rather than your own. We could have easily used 2 Corinthians 10:11 for part of our content. As Paul defends his ministry and the work they are doing to spread the Gospel, he says the following..

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

2 Corinthians 10:11

I have to admit..this can be tough. We naturally want to be proud of our accomplishments or the accomplishments of our children. We want to post on social media and tell others. That’s not bad, and yet Paul is also helping us recognize that nothing we do happens without the power of God and His will in it. James 1:17 also reminds us that “Every good and perfect gift comes from above..” It is really Him through us that good things are done.

It is also human nature to want self-fulfillment or the approval of others, but Paul also reminds us in the next verse we should have an audience of One. He’s the only one we should really seek an “Atta Boy!” or “Atta Girl!” from.

For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one who the Lord commends.

2 Corinthians 10:12

If you follow baseball at all, and especially the Chicago Cubs this year, you may be familiar with centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. He has taken the league by storm in his 2nd year with his electrifying speed and fielding, along with his surprisingly fast development at the plate hitting for average and power. Some are calling him “MVPete” already at just close to the halfway point of the season. Even with all the praise he’s getting from some, I looked at the comments on social media of a post showing an amazing diving catch he had on the 4th of July against the St. Louis Cardinals and most all of what I saw was negative and some downright hateful comments about him and saying this was just another normal diving catch. These comments coming from many who probably never even played baseball when some baseball metrics sites later said the ball had a 0-5% chance of being caught!

Why am I sharing this? Because like we discussed with our 8 year old team, no matter how good we are or how well we do something, if we seek most the approval of other humans (even family..let alone fans, coaches and bosses), we will be left feeling empty. Even the greatest athletes, actors, and business people will always have naysayers which often leads them to being depressed. It’s sad really. But, it is also a good reminder of the truth of these verses that we should only do what we do for His glory and seek His approval. And they go hand in hand really, we will only have His approval if we do it for His glory.

I will end this post as our 8U team broke our devotional huddles this season..

“1…2…3…Whose glory?!!”

“God’s glory!!!”

Who Gets the Glory?

Today’s readings are Isaiah 17-19, Psalm 62, and 1 Corinthians 1.

From a very young age we seem to all have a need for attention. We want to be noticed. You might even call it human nature. Just this past holiday weekend I heard my young kids say in the pool many times, “Dad..look at me!” Is wanting to be noticed, seen, or heard wrong or a sin? I would probably say it is not, but there is a very fine line. We live in a world today where it is very easy to cross that line. We constantly post pictures of our latest vacations, sports games and concerts we are attending, dinner at fancy restaurants, ours or our kids’ achievements, and we can’t forget that selfie’s seem to be the norm these days. Yes…we have to admit that our “look at me” world has become a little excessive. And I’m not just pointing fingers at others.

Merriam-Webster defines boast as “to praise oneself extravagantly with speech: speak of oneself with pride.”

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:31, “so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Paul leads by example in this chapter starting in verse 1 where he gives credit to God saying he’s called by God’s will to be an apostle of Jesus. In verse 4 he gives thanks to God and in verse 9 he again gives credit to God saying it was God’s faithfulness that they were called into fellowship with Jesus.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, Paul discusses how many whom he is writing to were not wise or noble by worldly standards. He says God chose what is weak, despised, and low in the world to shame the strong so that He would get the glory, and they could only boast in Him.

Some of us may have come from really tough and humble backgrounds that is easier to realize we would not have gotten to where we are today without Him. Some of us may have been more fortunate in our background that it is easier to take what we have for granted or even if we came from a tough background we could say we worked hard and made it for ourselves. That is the “American Way” right?

But, we must all realize we were born into this world naked with nothing (so whatever we have/had has come from Him), and we all will die and leave this world taking nothing with us. And we are all dead in our sin without His saving grace which gives us who are believers eternal life found only in Him.

So, the next time we talk to others about what is going well in our lives, or we post that picture on Facebook or Instagram, let us remember to give Him the glory and praise He deserves knowing that we should only boast in Him (1 Corinthians 1:31).