23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches,
Lord Jesus, your Word anticipates everywhere I’m tempted to turn, when you don’t seem to be enough to fill the longings of my heart and the relieve the pain in my world. I wish “smarts, strength, and stuff” were the only three broken cisterns to which I turn in those moments.
O for the Day when I’ll no longer complain and compare, murmur and measure, sin or even be tempted to sin. My theology is a resounding “Jesus + nothing is everything,” but sometimes my heart isn’t as convinced as my head.
24 but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they understand and know me,
Jesus, thank you for anticipating my weakness and foolishness, and for constantly wooing and winning my heart back to gospel sanity—back to yourself. You are more prone to recapture my heart than I am prone to wander away; more prone to forgive than I am to sin, and more committed to filling me up than I am to growing up in grace. Salvation is of the Lord—all of it!
Indeed, what is my boast? That you know me and love me, want me and delight in me. I love you because you first loved me, and gave yourself for me, Jesus.
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.
Your kindness, justice, and righteousness are most clearly revealed in the gospel. Jesus, you lavish immeasurable kindness on us, every day; one Day you will bring justice to every corner and crag of the universe; and we are wrapped in the gift of your perfect righteousness. For so great a salvation and for being so great a Savior, I praise, bless, and adore you, Lord Jesus. So very Amen I pray, in your strong and loving name.
