Proverbs 27:1. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
In Proverbs, we are introduced to the foolish sluggard who never makes any plans and never wants to do anything productive. But just as foolish is the person who thinks that they can control their future. This kind of fool talks about tomorrow as if it is a certainty. But it is important to remember that nothing is certain. We never know what will happen in the NEAR future – next year, next week, tomorrow, an hour from now.
For the control addict, such uncertainty is a nightmare. Those who boast about tomorrow reveal their lack of trust in God. Their faith is in their plans, not the providence of God. Sadly, this need to control everything affects the character and relationships of the planner. Manipulations. Pressures. Inflexibility. Worry. These are the traits of the control-freak. While believing that they are doing good for others, they are actually driving others away.
The problem, of course, is not in making plans, but in the boasting in our plans. In ancient times a boast would not just be about showing off one’s accomplishments. A boast was the pre-curser to every battle. A boast was about what you WILL do, not just what you HAVE done. Consider Goliath’s boast to David:
1 Samuel 17:44. “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”
And David’s to Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:46. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
Both of these warriors had faith in what they could do. Goliath boasted in his own strength, David in the Lord’s strength. That’s the first lesson – never boast in your own strength, your own plans, your own dreams. Boast only in what you KNOW God will do.
And that takes us to the second lesson – boast only in the cross.
Galatians 6:14. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
But wait, isn’t the cross something that God has already done, not something he will do? So how do you boast in the cross if it doesn’t have anything to do with the future? The answer is, because it has everything to do with our future.
For the person in Christ, the cross is not just a past victory, it is a daily way of life, and our future glorification. Just as the cross was Christ’s glorification, so too, our union with the cross is our future glorification. Why does Paul say he will boast ONLY in the cross? Why not the resurrection? Or the glorification that is to come? Because the cross is not only the cause of those things, it is also the goal of those things. We have been raised with Christ and glorified with Christ in order to live the cruciform life with him. The life of submission to God and his will, not our own dreams, goals, and plans.
You: What future do you boast in?
You in Christ: How does your union with the cross determine your past and your future?
Christ in you: What would boasting in the cross rather than in your ability to control look like in real life?
Pray: Father, you are in control, not me. May I boast in the “crosses” of life, even when they are not in my plans, as an opportunity to live like Jesus. Amen.
To Live is Christ 