A Different Look…

I would like us to look at 1 Corinthians 13 with different eyes.

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NASB

Many are discouraged in these days. Consider this (hopefully familiar) passage with me.

Do you see therein rejoicing? Do you see belief? Hope? Steadfast Endurance? Patience? Humility? Kindness? Does attainment of these seem like a high hurdle? Insurmountable, perhaps?

Consider:

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1 John 4:8 King James Version

The fulfillment of those 1 Corinthians 13 characteristics is in the very nature and character of God. They will not be in us unless and until He is in us. And once He is in us:

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.
(… but of Yaweh (is) deliverance.)

Proverbs 21:31 King James Version

I recommend a careful meditation on the fourth chapter of Zechariah. Zerubbabel was a leader of the first group of Jews returning to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity. The Lord is presenting Zerubbabel with a promise of His support and power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to rebuild the temple:

Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Zechariah 4:6

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

Zechariah 4:10

For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

2 Chronicles 16:9a

Lets get back to those characteristics of our God that we began with, and look longingly again:

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it [a]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NASB

Is He in us? He wants to be. Do you feel His eyes upon us? Are we depending on His might? The question is, what do we want? Our plan, or His?