#430: Boasting in the Lord as a Writer

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

So CJ Is going to share on today's theme, boasting in the Lord, just to give you some encouragement as you write.

Yeah, so the passage that we're going to look at is Second Corinthians, chapter 10. We're going to look at verses 13 through 18. And just to kind of give you a little background here with what Paul is writing in this section, he's actually addressing some people that apparently are in the area of Corinth that were wanting to take credit for some of the good stuff that was being done. And they were actually trying to diminish Paul and his associates. And you might even consider them to be, you know, false teachers of, Of. Of a sort of. But people who really wanted to look good among men and women, they wanted to get approval, you know, from those people and really try to boast in that way. Comparing themselves to others. And this is just so prevalent.

To me, reminded me of just the day and age that we live in, especially in this social media age, looking for approval from others.

Really trying to.

You know, look, look good. Boasting of our own efforts. We just live in this culture saturated with, look at me, look at me, look at me. And it's. It's really rare to find somebody that truly.

Just drips boasting of the Lord. And so that's kind of the background here. And I want to just read you a few scriptures here. Starting in verse 13. It says we will not boast about things done outside our area of authority. We will boast only about what has happened within the boundaries of the work God has given us, which includes our working with you.

We are not reaching beyond these boundaries when we claim authority over you as if we had never visited you. For we were the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the good news of Christ. I want to pause just right there, give you a little more background here. If you. If you go back to Acts, chapter 16.

Paul, you might recall Paul was wanting to go to Asia to minister. And how many remember that he was turned away twice by the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit on two different occasions, would not allow he and his ministry partners to. To go minister in Asia for. For one reason or another, we don't know exactly why, but.

Paul had this vision of a man in Macedonia, in Greece, saying, we need your help. In other words, come help us. And so at that point, right after that, Luke, the writer of Acts, says, we. We then headed, headed to Macedonia from there because we took that as a sign from the Lord that He wanted us to minister there. And I'm telling you, that ministry trip was so fruitful because they met Lydia. She was one of the first converts in Greece.

They would eventually stay in her home and her family's home. She would show them hospitality. Paul and his associates met Priscilla and Aquila. You talk about divine appointment and a partnership that would last for the duration of Paul's ministry. The Corinthian church being planted. And so we should never discount when the Lord takes us another direction for one specific reason or another, we know. We may not know exactly why he's taking us this direction. We keep knocking on a certain door and it keeps closing. But the Lord may have something else that he's wanting to.

Lead us to that's. That's fruitful, that's fruitful in his service. And of course, at the end of the day, he's the one that gets credit for that. But that's kind of a little background there in terms of we were the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the good news of Christ. Now, apparently some others were taking credit for this. Paul is saying, hey, I. We don't have to, like, justify ourselves. We know, we know the Lord led us to you, and we were the first ones to give you the Gospel. And then in verse 15, nor do we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Now, I had a hard time deciding whether to have the theme be boasting in the Lord or the theme of extending your boundaries or extending your territory, because this really stood out to me. And so I'm going to say that this is a secondary theme of this, of this particular virtual writing retreat. But it hit me so much right here where, where it says that Paul's hope is that as they planted this church, as they shared the gospel, that eventually the people would catch fire and their faith would grow so much that their boundaries would be extended. It was almost as if any of the work that Paul did would be extended through everything that God would do, through this. This newfound faith of the believers. And I thought, what could happen if our books go into new territories? They go into new areas, faith catches and takes root. And what would happen if, if from there the people understand.

And grab a vision of what we were writing about and they take it and run with it. Imagine, I, I started thinking, man, wouldn't it be incredible if we just began praying for our books to get into areas that they've never gotten into before, or, or perhaps a message that we share that, that need, that needs to get into a very specific town. Maybe one person gets it and all of a sudden they love it so much that they buy a case of our books and they hand them out to several people that they know. And then those books get passed around and on and on and on. We just never know the power of the message that God bursts in and through us and it gets to an area that takes root. And so that's verse 15. Verse 16 says, Then we will be able to go and preach the good news in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. That was one of Paul's. You see this theme in Paul. Paul had a desire to go where the gospel hadn't been preached. He had a desire to go into areas where they, they were hopeless, they had nothing. And, and, and that's why he was a minister to the Gentiles.

In terms of his title as well, not just to the Jewish people. He says, then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else's territory. Verse 17. As the Scriptures say, if you want to boast, boast only about the Lord. Now let me read that scripture that he's referencing in Jeremiah completely, Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Listen to this. This is what the Lord says. Don't let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things I, the Lord have spoken.

So we don't boast in our, our riches. We don't boast in the power, powerful position we might have. We don't boast in our own earthly wisdom. We boast in the Lord. In other words, we boast in. We, we lift him up as the reason, as the, the means that we even get to do this thing called the writing life. That our books even have the possibility of being downloaded on and bought on Amazon or whatever platform you're selling them on or in that local bookstore that gives you an opportunity to do a book signing. One even every bit of influence that we have comes from the lord.

And verse 18 when people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. How much of this do we see? How much of this do we see in our world today? And again, I reference that social media world because it's just right there in front of us. So easy to commend ourselves because we want the pats on the back, but we crave that, we want that. We want attention, we want to be recognized as important. We all want it down deep. And yet the Lord's calling us to something different. He says when people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them right there. And I want to ask us all to think about this as we're writing. I just believe with all my heart that the Lord is going to commend us in his own ways and timing, that we won't even have to try to draw attention to ourselves now. We're going to market our books, we're going to send out letters to churches and who, you know, who knows who else in terms of letting them know about our books? There's, there's a different means there. We're not, but we're not drawing attention to ourselves because we want the accolades. We're just wanting to share the message that God's put on our hearts, that's burning in our hearts. This was Paul's desire. He wanted to go where the gospel hadn't been preached. That, and he was going to boast in the Lord for opening those doors. Others around that area wanted to take credit for the work that Paul and, and his ministry partners had, had been a part of and done and birthed. Paul says, I'm not worried about that. In fact, I'm not even into this popularity contest. I don't have to be popular. I don't have to like be the one at the end of the day to get credit. He says, at the end of the day, I'll be commended by the Lord and I want the commendation of the Lord. And that should be everything that you and I want with our books. Isn't it exciting to know that the Lord is going to open up doors for you and I that we would have never imagined? He's going to redirect our steps from even things that we thought would happen and it's going to be even better than what we could have imagined. And at the end of the day, we can say, I boast in the Lord. I could have never imagined that direction. I could have never put those circumstances together in my own power and strength. It was the Lord that brought that about. And so as you're writing today and tomorrow, as you're working on whatever you're. You're working on, I want you to think about this, this opportunity to boast in the Lord. I want you to think about all the ways that he wants to get your writing out there, because it's writing that he's wanting to birth in and through you. And it's not just for our glory. I believe he's going to allow us to.

How do I put this? He will be recognized, Lord. The Lord doesn't forget. And yet we don't have to worry about other people giving us all those kudos and all those likes and all those, you know, thumbs ups. If that happens, great, accept it. Praise be to God. And you can always deflect the, the praise back to the Lord. But if we're seeking those accolades specifically, and that's what makes us feel good, that's where the problem, I believe, I believe happens is when you and I start seeking that instead of the, the commending of the Lord for the work that he's doing in and through us, it's all going to work itself out. Paul knew this and his ministry partners knew this. They didn't have to try to stage a popularity contest among those who were wanting that credit. They were just going to keep doing what the Lord had called them to do. That's what you and I are called to do. And I'm excited for each one of you because I think your books are going to go into areas that need it most. And as we continue to pray in that direction, we're going to be amazed at how he spreads that message. So that's my, my encouragement to you here this morning.

Yeah, It's a message that I think we can hear over and over and over again. How many of you agree?

It, it never gets old to hear this again of like, it is not about me. It is not about us. It is about the Lord and He is working through you Kingdom writers. And whether or not you see fruit right now, it's. It takes faith, faith to say, okay, God, I'm going to continue planting these seeds, watering these seeds, even though I don't see anything popping up through the ground yet. Right. Like farmers, I don't see anything yet, but I'm going to Trust you. And in his timing, he works everything out. And sometimes it just turns out completely different than what we expected or what we wanted. But when we keep our eyes on him, when we die, to ourselves, and we give him the credit, we boast in him. He's going to lead us and guide us. And look what God did through Paul's ministry. I mean, incredible. The guy is prolific, right? He wrote so much of the New Testament. And I just imagined him. He was tent making, he was writing these letters. He's preaching in the, you know, in the different places. And he is. He's just traveling. But I mean, he was a busy guy. You know, you talk about grace over grind. God gave him grace to accomplish all that he accomplished. And some people might look at him today and think, oh, he's a workaholic, right? And yet he did it in the. The joy and the power of the Lord. And so whether we're in this season of productivity and acceleration or whether we're at a season of obscurity, like I've been going through both of those in the last probably four years. It was 2020, right before COVID hit. God put me in a season of obscurity. And I still have not spoken live, at a live event, on a stage since 2019 online. You know, we do all kinds of speaking, but God just kind of took me aside and had me in a season, and then we had a season of acceleration with our business. And, you know, now we're in a different season. But you know what? It's all about him. And he is the one that's leading and guiding and directing us. And then, you know, you look at Paul, he was in prison and he had that season where he was still. Still preaching the gospel. But, you know, we all have different things that God has for us to accomplish and different assignments. And it doesn't mean one's better or worse. What CJ and I do, it's not better or worse than what you're doing. What you're doing is not better or worse than your neighbor. We all are different. And so when we boast in the Lord, we just take ourselves out of that equation and it's so powerful. So, cj, why don't you pray for all of us as we are all on this journey together? It is a minute by minute journey sometimes. Amen. And we just. We need to stay connected to the vine.

Yeah. Oh, Father, we. We thank you so much that we have the privilege of knowing you. That's what we want to boast about as Jeremiah said, we, we thank you that we had the privilege to be able to make your name known in and through our books. And we word that as Paul even desired for the faith of these believers in Corinth as it grew, then the influence that they had would just naturally extend beyond those, those borders. Or as another translation here says, and the esv, as our, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged. And I am praying, Lord, that the influence of each of these kingdom writers would be greatly enlarged for your glory, for your honor. So that people who need to hear and read the messages that you're birthing in and through us in these books would get to the right people, they'd hit their intended targets and that from there the influence would be expanded again, not so that we get 500 more followers or likes or whatever it might be, but, but so that you receive glory and honor and that lives are impacted to the core on a deep spiritual level and that that makes a difference, Lord, for their eternity. And I just ask, Lord, that each person here would really enjoy writing from that perspective today and tomorrow, that they would enjoy writing from a wow, you know, I get to do this. I'm boasting in you, Lord. You're the one that deserves the glory. And I pray that we would all catch that, that vision, that same vision that Jeremiah wrote about thousands of years ago. It's just as relevant, if not more today in the culture that we find ourselves in. And so may we take every opportunity to boast in the Lord. And I pray that for a fruitfulness and, and just an expanded territory with each one of these kingdom writers. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

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Thank you, thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a of piece powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom Writers.