If I want advice on how to live my life, I simply need to head to a magazine stand, a bookstore, or scroll the internet. There I’ll find ways to exercise and get in shape, diets to maximize brain health, investment strategies to create wealth, and examples of how to influence people and win friends. All proven mechanisms to better myself.

While I indeed find many of these ideas helpful, a deeply flourishing life lies elsewhere. The fiery prophet Jeremiah pointed in the right direction:

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Intelligence, power and wealth make the world go around. What holds greater value in our society? Mix in good looks and you have it made. But Jeremiah shifts the target. How to create a life worth emulating? How to truly flourish? Invest in understanding and knowing the Lord. Open the Scriptures, read, listen, study and pray. Call on the Holy Spirit for guidance. Plow the fields of love, justice and righteousness, and reap the goodness of God.

Jeremiah wrote 2500 years ago, but I hear no better advice from all the chattering voices of our society today. Know the Lord and know life, that’s solid wisdom to build a life upon.

Jeremiah 9:23-24

Photo by Shiromani Kant

Sometimes I’m reticent to bring God into a conversation. I sense the person in front of me is not interested, or I might offend them. Other times I worry they may think less of me, or I might not garner their approval. Usually I’m wrong. If the topic of the divine arises, many people are polite and ask questions. Some respond enthusiastically. Occasionally someone grows quiet and declines to talk further. The responses always surprise me.

Paul and his missionary band initiated conversation after conversation about Jesus. Many in their audience advanced their own views and perspectives in an attempt to counter these teachings about the Messiah. But Paul understood the authority behind his reasoning:

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Every thought captive refers to more than our personal mindset. Every single rationalization and counterpoint brought against the wisdom of God eventually fails. Christ shackles the opinions of leading thinkers. The assertions of scoffers never rise to the challenge. The great philosophers fail.

I forget to my detriment the otherworldly power found in the Word of God. The words of Jesus carry a strength beyond any other. I share my own opinion of God and find a tepid response, but I speak the Word of God and light a fuse. Never forget the divine nature of the Bible. Read it, say it aloud, and tell it to others. Let loose God’s divine power in a world of desperate need.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Photo by Yaoqi

Jeremiah brought a scathing message to the leaders of Judah. These men and women rejected the Lord, worshipped foreign gods, and in Jeremiah’s understated but profound line, went after things that do not profit.

There’s a convicting thought. What things do I go after that do not profit?

Instagram reels immediately come to mind. While humorous and entertaining, does that hour pay dividends in the long run? Or chasing the news cycle across various platforms—do all the thoughts and opinions of commentators prove advantageous? I love football, but how many games in a weekend tip over into to a net loss? But let’s not get crazy…

Jeremiah spoke not of money but of the soul. A flourishing life and hope for eternity depends on our relationship with God. Anything that pulls us away, that separates us from the Lord falls into the category of things that do not profit.

Perhaps you’d like to take stock with me and think through your daily routine. Delete an app, or go for a walk and leave the phone behind when the urge to consume media gets too great. Whatever it takes, because as another well-quoted person in the Bible once said, what does if profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

Jeremiah 2:8 & Mark 8:36

Photo by Emma Shappley

Historically, as seen in many studies, people with lower incomes give a higher percentage of their income to charity, even though wealthier individuals donate significantly more in absolute dollar amounts.

Rich or poor, I’m always impressed with generous givers. I spend time on college campuses and notice building after building named after wealthy benefactors. But I also see people of limited means freely share what little they possess.

Paul wrote in praise of a group of churches in Macedonia who participated in a special fund-raising effort:

In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

It’s stunning to read of a set of people, themselves afflicted and impoverished, giving so generously. They gave of their means, and then beyond their means, to create a swelling of wealth.

These Macedonians gave not to impress, but to serve the Lord and their fellow followers of Jesus. Thanks to their own poverty they understood the gnawing worry of paying the rent and feeding their kids. From heartfelt faith—loving their Lord their God and loving their neighbors as themselves—sprang the relief fund Paul carried south.

Whether I have a little or a lot, I’m encouraged to give generously. I try to give of my labor, influence, finances and expertise. But I especially need to give financially, and I need to feel it. Give something away and it stops controlling you.

Funny to think that these poor Macedonians didn’t give to be remembered or get their names on a building. Yet after all these years we honor them. If I give myself to the Lord and follow his will in giving, I may not see my name carved in stone, but a great deal of good will carry through this world.

2 Corinthians 8:2-5

Photo by Annie Spratt