As God’s born-again children, we have been given great power and ability. We are God’s masterpiece and are seated in the heavenlies! While we want to be confident in the power and ability we have to manifest, we also want to keep a balance of godly confidence and meekness. By recognizing that God is our sufficiency and by living God’s love toward others, we can display godly confidence as well as be meek and humble, not allowing ourselves to be “puffed up.”
In I Corinthians 13, God’s Word tells us what His love is and what it is not. Verse 4 says that living God’s love is not being puffed up.
I Corinthians 13:4:
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
“Charity” is the Greek word agapē, which is the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. What a powerful kind of love! And this powerful kind of love is not puffed up. To be puffed up metaphorically is to be inflated with pride, to be egotistical, or to have an exaggerated sense of self-importance. It can also mean to bear oneself loftily. One Bible version renders “is not puffed up” as “does not display itself haughtily.” This is absolutely NOT the love of God!
Rather than being puffed up, we want to live a loving lifestyle, not bearing ourselves loftily because we know that our sufficiency is not of ourselves—it is of God.
Acknowledging God as our sufficiency helps us stay meek and humble. As God’s children, we can develop the habit of being thankful toward our heavenly Father, taking the time to recognize that our power and ability come from Him.
II Corinthians 3:4,5:
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.
God is our sufficiency—we are not our own sufficiency and we are not other people’s sufficiency. Remembering these things and keeping a meek and humble heart helps us live love. Another way to not be puffed up is to look for ways to build others in Christ with love.
Focusing on others helps us to balance our godly confidence with meekness. Part of living a loving lifestyle includes building up those around us with the love of God.
I Corinthians 8:1:
…Knowledge puffeth up, but charity [agapē] edifieth.
When we offer help to others, our motivation is not to show off all we may know about the Bible. Instead, it is to help bring God’s solutions to people’s lives by showing them the promises in His Word. This is part of building up one another and building strength. As people open up their hearts to us, we can listen and pay attention to what they need and believe that God will work in us to give them a word fitly spoken, a word that will lead to deliverance. We can be confident that it is God and His Word that bring results!
We can balance our godly confidence with meekness as we remember that the love of God is not puffed up. We can stay meek and humble as we allow God to be our sufficiency, focusing on meeting the needs of others with the solutions of His Word and with the light of His love.
Let’s utilize the power and ability God has given us as His children to manifest His love. We can walk in godly confidence with meekness!