Friday, March 7, 2014

He is.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not envious or boastful or proud or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

I've often thought that these verses should be written as:

The Lord is patient and kind. He is not envious or boastful or proud or rude.  He does not demand His own way.  He is not irritable, and He keeps no record of being wronged.  He does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  The Lord never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

This is the New Living Translation version, except where I changed the word jealous to envious.  My Bible text tells me in the Old Testament that the Lord is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5), therefore I didn't think that translation was fit.  You have got to watch some of these translations even though they are easier to read.

These characteristics of God certainly point out where in so many areas I fail to have the character of my Lord.  In fact, I'm having a hard time figuring out the one characteristic I might can claim!  How can I be so very far from His character?  Oh how my heart breaks over its unending failure.  How my Lord bothers with me I will never understand.  Except that, "He is patient and kind. ... He keeps no record of being wronged ... He never gives up ...".  The very character of God keeps me on His mind and He "never loses faith" and "is always hopeful" in who I can become and in who He created.  I fail at keeping my eyes dry just absorbing this truth and acknowledging what I don't deserve.

I pray this morning:         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

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