Love is Humble (God is Love part two)

"It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud." 1 Corinthians 13:4b

Here 1 Cor. 13 introduces three things that love is not; envious, boastful, or proud. And, by reverse, we can say that love is content with what it has, doesn't exaggerate itself, and doesn't think too much of itself. It's humble.

Now let's get to digging deep and applying these things to God.

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"It does not envy."

Love doesn't go around wanting, it's content with what it has, and it doesn't mind when other people have good things.

An important thing to remember here is to not swing too far with this, love doesn't envy, but that doesn't mean love doesn't work towards things that it wants, but that love isn't focused on what it doesn't have, but what it does.

But, how do we apply this to God? Can He even envy, if He's the most powerful being in the universe?

Let's put it a different way, God's content with what He has.

That's a weird thought. To think that God's content with what He has. That He doesn't constantly need more. God's perfectly happy with what He's got right now. And, when He strives towards His glory, He doesn't do it because He needs more, but because His glory is the only thing worth pursuing, and He knows it.

Just, think about it for a moment. God is content with what He has, and He calls us to follow Him in that. To have joy in what we have, not to constantly look to what we do not have.

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"It does not boast."

Love doesn't go around telling people about how it's 'all that' when it isn't. Love doesn't brag. Love doesn't think that its deeds are better than they really are.

That's true for God, too.

It's hard for me to wrap my head around that, though, because throughout the Bible we see a lot of God being praised and saying big things about Himself, and it can seem a lot like boasting to us.

But, before we dive in to how that's wrong, let's define what boasting is (a very important step in the process, I highly suggest defining terms when you're trying to learn more about them). "To speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about oneself" is Dictionary.com's definition.

So, boasting is exaggerating about ourselves.

And, the thing is, God doesn't do that. God speaks truths about Himself, because, however much we may try to deny it at times, He is all that. He is the creator of all. He knows everything. He is everywhere. Nothing and no one can stop Him from doing anything He's set His mind to.

And, far from being not boastful, God is humble. He lowered Himself to be like us, to live in a dirty world, with sinful people who mocked and rejected Him, and He came here to save us. He did it in love. He did it for us, and for His glory.

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"It is not proud." 

This can be another hard one for us to wrap our minds around.

But, again, pride is excessive. 

Pride is when we think too much of ourselves.

And, again, God doesn't do that. He is the creator of everything, without Him our whole universe wouldn't exist. He is the most powerful being,  and He is in complete control.

Far from just not being proud, God is humble. He reaches out to us when we turn away from Him. He turns the other cheek, and constantly gives us second chances. He offers us eternal forgiveness for sins against Him, and He does it for free. The only cost is that we have to recognize that He is God, and that we are not.

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But, at least for me, there's always this part of me that's confused when it comes to God's glory.

That part of me that says God being God-centered is selfish.

And, it can be really hard to understand the truth, that God's glory is the best thing, for everyone. God pursues His glory because it's the only thing worth pursuing. Pursuing anything else would make Him not God.

Confusing.

But, instead of trying to wrap our heads around all that, let's try to trust God, to know that when all our flesh and sinful desires are taken away we will truly want God's glory more than anything, and we can strive towards that now, today, even if we don't understand everything.

Because, when I think about who God is, about how He is patient and kind with us, and how He humbled Himself to come and show us mercy and grace; when I see how He is humble; that's when I most want to glorify God. When I see Him, albeit through the dirty and broken lens I have in this world, I see that He is good, and He is what I truly want.

And, if I can see and realize that through the the warped view I have of things now, I can forever have hope that when God clears my vision His glory will be my only goal.

So, let us have hope in God even when we don't understand, let us discover more and more who He is as we see how He loves us.

~Rebecca P.