Shan Dai Advocacy

Jeremiah

March 23, 2007 on 12:59 pm | In His First Bible, Old Testament, PrayerGrams |

What are you boasting about: wealth, children, professional position, talent or beauty? Ai Zom boasted of his skill. A gifted wood carver, Ai Zom lives in a Shan Dai village. During the Cultural Revolution, several carved idols were hidden, protected from the Communist regime. Years later, Ai Zom joined his friends to uncover these idols so that they could once again worship them. Idols in hand, Ai Zom could not help but critique the quality of the carving and he secretly boasted of his own carving skills. Is boasting wrong? What is God’s opinion? Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord addresses the issue. “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth…” (Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV). God used the situation with the carved idol to get Ai Zom thinking, “Am I to worship this idol that someone created?…is there not One greater than this?” We thank You, Father, for reaching out to Ai Zom and for bringing people into his life so that now he is exposed to truth and knows You. You are the One True God and in You do we boast. God, we pray that through Ai Zom, many other Shan Dai people will know You too. Of all the good things in life, You are the best! May the Shan Dai boast in You alone.