The human habit of boasting

 

We live in a world that seems to reward noise. From politicians to athletes to influencers, the message is the same: promote yourself, celebrate yourself, trust yourself. Even ordinary people feel the pressure to live a life worth boasting about. Yet for all the noise, something inside us knows the truth—boasting is a fragile shield. It cracks the moment the pressures of life expose our weakness.

A quiet but unmistakable fact runs through the whole Bible. When a person finally stands before God, they will have nothing to boast about.

The gospel speaks about this with a clarity that startles and is liberating. When we meet God, boasting will be excluded. Not reduced. Not moderated. Excluded.

The End of Self‑Confidence

Paul writes, "That no flesh should boast before God" (1 Corinthians 1:29). It's a sobering thought. The very things we cling to—our achievements, our morality, our religious efforts—collapse in the presence of a holy God. Abraham himself, the great patriarch of faith, had nothing in his natural life that could earn him favour (Romans 4:2). If he couldn't boast, who can?

This is where the gospel begins: with the honest admission that we bring nothing. Not a shred of righteousness. Not a drop of merit. Not a single reason for God to accept us.

And strangely, this is not the point where hope ends—it's where it begins.

Instructions!

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I really don’t know about you, but one of the most maddening things that I find about people is that they don’t listen and don’t follow instructions. We all know that happens so often in everyday life. We know that people are told things and they don’t even listen. It could be to do with our health or our money but we often ignore the advice that we are given. Or sometimes people are given guidelines but they ignore them and just do it their own way. 

Mr Grumpy - what would change you?

 

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When we think of someone, we can often think of a characteristic that describes them. It could be grumpy, optimistic, sullen, generous, or mean. I wonder what people say about you and, more importantly, what people say about me. The truth is that we all exhibit many commendable qualities along with our flaws, but often one of our idiosyncrasies seems to represent us.

There are often reasons for this! Maybe a lack of confidence stops us from being optimistic, or past failures stop our confidence from showing. Is it easy to change? No, not really!

Where did it all Begin? How will it all end?

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Even after all these months, there is no clear information about exactly where Coronavirus came from and how it spread so fast. Did it spread from some animal to man, and what might that animal have been in this case? The World Health Organisation has recently been to Wuhan in China to find some answers, while China does not want them to find answers that would embarrass them!

 

But how does such a virus originate in the first place? It is a microscopic parasite which can only live and multiply by invading the cells of another organism. There it produces copies of itself which then spread rapidly, usually damaging the organism.

Seeing is believing!

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‘Seeing is believing’ — or so some say. But try asking someone who is blind whether theirs is just a virtual world. God cannot be seen with our eyes but it does not mean God is not there and that He cannot see us. Actually, God knows everything about us.

One day, Jesus saw a man who had been blind since his birth. He could not see Jesus, but Jesus could see him, and soon actions and words revealed His presence. As Jesus’ disciples looked on, they wondered how such a condition had arisen. Could this man somehow have committed wrong before his birth? Or perhaps it was because of some blunder on the part of his parents? 

Whilst it is true that our mistakes can have repercussions both to ourselves and others, Jesus said that this was not the case here. The Bible says, ‘Jesus saw’ him. He not only saw the man’s physical condition but his spiritual state too. The man’s physical blindness gave Jesus the opportunity to perform a miracle that would show God’s power at work.