‘Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. ‘
1 Corinthians 13:4 (AMP)
As we talk about the qualities of love, remember that God is love. We talked about that before. And I don’t want it to go over your head that when we say “love does not,” what we are really saying is “God does not.” And if God does not, and the nature of God is in you, and His Spirit is on the inside of you, then you do not. Do you understand how the math flows now?
The triplets
You see these words, brag, proud, arrogant; the three of them are triplets. They have the same DNA because they are so intertwined that you cannot have one without the other.
A person who brags talks about their achievements and what they have accomplished from a place of pride. And that pride shows in the way they communicate it. It’s not just what they are saying, it’s how they are saying it. It’s like a progression. There is pride on the inside. Then there is an accomplishment. Then the person talks about that accomplishment. But because pride is already on the inside, the communication carries arrogance. And that arrogance makes people feel small.
We don’t even need to talk too much for you to already remember someone who fits this category. Every single conversation revolves around them. What they were, what they are, what they intend to achieve. It’s always, where I bought this, how I bought this, who I know, do you know who I am? Those are the kinds of conversations you hear.
But this devotional is not for you to think about people. But to think about yourself.
What about you?
Consider that maybe you brag subtly. Maybe you brag subtly with your posts. Maybe you brag subtly when you exaggerate your accomplishments so that you look better in the eyes of people. Maybe you brag subtly with the words you choose to describe who you are and what you do. Maybe when you’re asked to introduce yourself, you take it a step further from introduction into trying to prove something.
Because the qualities we are talking about are not for somebody else. They are for you, the one reading this.
Pray
Ask yourself, do I exaggerate a little? Do I share my achievements so I can rub it in, so people can see that I have arrived? What is the motive behind my sharing? What is the motive behind the way I communicate my accomplishments?
And if you struggle with examining yourself, or you’re not sure, let me reintroduce you to the prayer of the psalmist:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23–24, NKJV)
Ask the Lord to search your heart. Ask Him to kill the pride in you. Kill the arrogance in you. I have never seen love thrive where pride is present. Ask Him to deal with anything in you that makes people feel small when they come around you, instead of feeling lifted.
