Riches

When God says that He will not give His glory to another, this means there is no glory, no goodness we have to offer. There is nothing I have to offer. This is awesome news. I don't get the riches and beauty of myself (which is honestly less then muck), instead in Jesus I am offered the riches of God. Oh! It is grand that I am nothing, that I might gain Christ!

Humility

Humility - the emptying of oneself, so that you can be filled with God.

To have any part with Christ we must deny ourselves and we must lose our lives. 

        Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
  
(Matthew 16:24-26 ESV)

Boast in the Lord

There is no pride as you grow in maturity as a Christian. Often it is the more mature who are the greater sinners, since the more you understand, the more you are held to account, and the greater the sin. But even in the good that we do there is no boasting, because we are the handiwork of God and not ourselves. Any goodness is His work and not our own. We have nothing to present before others to show that we are better than they are. We have nothing to present before God. And so there is no boasting, except in the cross, which is greater than the greatness of our sin and is the only thing that makes us right before God.

May God enable others to see my weakness

This may sound strange. But hope others see me as weak. Not in a pitiful sense, but in the sense that what ever strength is seen in me is credited to Christ, and not to me. If my words are strong, it is because Christ is strong. If my actions are strong, it is because Christ is strong. This gives God the glory.

Also I don't want to be seen as strong, because it gives way for people believing that if they just do this, or have this much quiet time, or read this much, that that is what it takes to live the Christian walk. No, it is by grace and grace alone. By seeking the face of Christ. By falling in love with Christ and wanting to know Him. The sick were healed when they came to Christ. We are sanctified when we come to Christ.

So I hope others see me as weak, but also see the power of Christ in me and know that He is faithful, strong, and loving.

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." --Titus 2:11-14

"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest in me." -- 2 Corinthians 12:9

Unshockable

One of the things my pastor says often is that he wants us to be an unshockable people, where we come together and love each other despite all the muck and mess that each of us bring to the table. When we truly understand who we are, and we see our own sin and our own desperate need for the Gospel, now at this very moment, we are not shocked by other peoples sins and faults. There is no longer any room for boasting. We have no good thing apart from Christ. And as we see God's patience and love in our own lives and understand his grace and the power of the Gospel, it frees us to love those around us. It also frees us to celebrate, because when our boasting is gone, we are free to rejoice together in the one who truly deserves the glory and honor and majesty.

May I loose myself

If you seek to impress people, you create an expectation you cannot live up to. But if you lay down you life and point to Christ boasting only in Him, then you are pointing to the place where true confidence can be given.

What I would like to be

This is a man that understands that he does not uphold himself or has anything to boast in, but boasts in and depends only in Christ.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
--who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
"I dwell in the high and holy place,
--and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revieve the spirit of the lowly,
--and to revive the heart of the contrite.

-----------Isaiah 57:15,16