(JEREMIAH 9: 23-24)
One of the best feelings in life is knowing God.
It gives you a very high degree of CONFIDENCE. You KNOW in your Knower that God is on your side and no matter what happens, you will be fine.
The Scripture, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) is REAL to them.
We will always have challenges in life: Jesus said, “In the world you WILL have tribulations; but be of good cheer- I have overcome the world!” (John 16: 33).
There are examples in Scripture of people who KNEW God and boasted about Him openly.
Prophet Elijah: he had a public show against 400 Prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He asked for a contest between them: you are all Prophets of Baal, I am a Prophet of Jehovah. Let us take a bull each and sacrifice to our god: the one that responds with fire- let him be the True God. At the end of the day, Elijah won that contest: Baal could not do anything, but Jehovah rained down fire on the sacrifice.
Elijah was so confident in God, he asked for his sacrifice to be soaked in water before he prayed for fire! He wanted the situation to be as bad as it could be, so when God answered, there would not be any doubt anywhere. (1st Kings 18:20-39)
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: these 3 young man were arrested and sentenced to death in Babylon for worshiping God, in defiance to the King’s order. The King had set up an idol and ordered the people to bow down and worship it as soon as they heard the sound of the flute, horn, harp and other musical instruments. The 3 young men refused to do so. The King asked them to be brought before him for interrogation: why did you refuse to obey my instruction? I will give you one last chance to obey, else you die!
Their response is very instructive. They said, “O Nebuchadnezzar (they didn’t even call him King!), we have no need to respond to you on this issue: the God we serve is able to deliver us! Even if He doesn’t, we will NOT bow down to your idol!” At the end of the day, God came through for them. (Daniel 3).
Ezra the Priest/Scribe: In his case, Ezra made his boast in the Lord but he was not bold enough to believe it. The King of Persia had given him materials and funds to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. He traveled with hundreds of people on the journey back to Jerusalem. He knew there were bandits on the way, but he had boasted to the King: “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him…” (Ezra 8:22) implying that God was able to protect them from the bandits. So he couldn’t then ask for soldiers as security for them after making such a submission.
So, when they got to River Ahava, he proclaimed a fast for the people to seek God’s face. God answered their prayers and they got to their destination without any Bandit Attack.
Scripture says, “the eyes of the Lord are running to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2nd Chronicles 16:9).
God will NOT let those who trusts Him enough to boast in Him to be shamed. He is actually looking for such folks, for such opportunities to show Himself strong!
God is looking for those who are bold enough to commit Him and believe He WILL come through for them.
I heard an interesting story a few weeks ago: an undergraduate in a Nigerian University told her classmates, “God told me that after graduation, I will be posted to Lagos State for my National Service Year!” Her classmates scorned her. They all wanted her to be posted elsewhere so they could ridicule her but she kept saying it over and over again, to the annoyance of her classmates. When the list of Service Year was posted on the Notice Board, her classmates were more interested in hers than in theirs!
Guess what? She was posted to another State! Her classmates made fun of her. But she was unbowed: I KNOW what God told me! She resumed at her Place of Assignment and after a week, the Organization felt she would be more useful in their Head Office in Lagos- and redeployed her! She moved to Lagos as an Out-Of-Station-Staff and was paid an additional 40% of her monthly salary as “Compensation” for the “Inconvenience” of transferring her to Lagos!
The classmates had laughed her to scorn a few weeks earlier, but God came through for her.
We MUST learn to boast in God, folks.
David wrote, “My soul shall make its BOAST in the LORD, the humble shall hear of it and be glad” (Psalm 34:2).
He also wrote: “In God we BOAST all day long and praise your Name forever” (Psalm 44:8)
Jeremiah also wrote, “Let not the wise BOAST of their wisdom, or the strong BOAST of their strength, or the rich of their riches; but let the one who boasts BOAST about this: that they understand and know me…” (Jeremiah 29:23-24).
God is looking for people to BOAST in Him!
Shalom,
Haruna Daniels