But now faith, hope, and love remain; these three virtues must characterize our lives. 1 Corinthians 13:13
HOPE Wins because hope energizes your faith and allows you to show love even when you might feel that others might not deserve it.
I was furious and didn’t care who knew it. Our oldest daughter, Elizabeth, kept crossing the line to do exactly the opposite of what we had told her to do. She really knew how to push my buttons – especially when it came to her lack of respect.
I give more details in my book, The Power of Hope for Prodigals, where I tell the story of letting hope connect the dots between faith and love. When one of your children rejects your guidance and direction you can lose faith and ultimately act in unloving ways.
Context
Paul is writing a letter to the church in Corinth, a thriving city filled with prosperity and perversion. Their religion had a temple of Aphrodite where prostitutes sold themselves as an act of worship to this goddess of love. It was so bad that a synonym for a prostitute was a “Corinthian girl.” This is a church that has its share of troubles as they seek to gain perspective in such a corrupt culture. Despite all their troubles the are reminded that there is always hope for everyone even when they are living below the standards set in the Scripture. Paul could have been discouraged at all the opposition, divisions and immorality yet he speaks with great confidence and hope. His hope is in the fact that God is the one who supplies for spiritual needs. He is the one who started a good work and will see it all the way to the end.
Faith
The church of Corinth was pretty excited about the supernatural miracles that they were seeing yet were acting as jerks. They were arrogant and proud about it all. This ‘love’ chapter comes as a firm correction that all of the hoopla means nothing if there is no love. Faith in action can sometimes look more like loving your kid than praying for someone’s healing. If you have all this spiritual power and neglect those closest to you, you will end up with nothing in the end.
It sure was hard to have faith for a positive outcome as we rode what felt like a roller coaster of emotions with a rebellious teenager. There was a lot of anger in our home at that time. Many days and nights it felt that she was beyond help and hope. She was messing up her life and ours at the same time. Faith at this point needed hope because I did not have confident expectation of a good outcome. The reality is that I could let my mind go crazy with possible outcomes and dire predictions. I was free with these negative words as I tried to scare her enough not to continue on her current path. Somehow this tactic was not working. We were lacking hope and, most of all – love.
Hope
Love is like the glove that perfectly fits hope. In 1 Corinthians 13:7 (Voice) says, “Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what.” Hope allows faith to move beyond believing. There are those situations that you might be facing that seem impossible. You wantn to give someone the benefit of the doubt there you find that you have no more to give. You are searching for some kind of silver lining but all you find are angry storm clouds in the relationship. When faith is put into action with a hope perspective you refuse to give up on people or even yourself. The reason you can do this is because God specializes in taking hopeless cases and creating trophies of His grace. Hope allows you to get involved in the process of being His extension of caring unconditionally for the one that does not deserve or even act like they care about it. Love expects the best in people. When you look at them through the eyes of hope you never lose faith in what God has planned for them. Despite their shortcomings they can grow and become all He has planned for them.
I was able to flip the Hope Switch by viewing my daughter’s situation as a detour rather than a destination. It was not my job to pur her in a prison and watach her like a warden. Instead, it was my job to pray for her every day with prayers of hope. My responsibility was to “paint her a picture of hope.”
Love
What I discovered is that a background of hope is rooted in love rather than fear. I had been so afraid of my daughter’s mistakes that I had lost sight of the thruth that God loved her more than I did. She did not need the threat of punishment to stay in line. God was working from the inside out and would accomplish His plans for her. It was not up to me to get her on the right path. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” I was my job to create an environment where she saw God’s love in action.
To read more about this wonderful story of redemption click here.
Prayer
Thank You, Lord that even when we do not see progress in the lives of those we love, we know that nothing takes you by surprise. Thank You for showing me Your perspective in order to receive peace and to release that person to You. I place my faith in You and allow hope to fill my heart that Your love will show on my face and in my actions independently of their responses. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
HOPE WINS!
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Author, speaker, corporate trainer, ordained minister and Hope Catalyst, Karen Sebastian enjoys sharing her rich life experiences with others – engaging them in adventurous discoveries of the beauty of hope in a dark, cloudy world. Her books will inspire you to embrace hope no matter what you are going through.
