And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;but the greatest of these is love.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:13
"If I just had more faith..."
"I sure hope things work out ok."
"I hope to do better next time."
Such statements reveal the enemy's deception to defer faith and hope to the future so that we will miss knowing Christ in the present. I certainly have been tempted by these type of thoughts.
The glorious message of being united with Christ through His cross and resurrection sets us free to the present reality of faith, hope, and love! And love is greater only in the sense that love is the paramount expression of faith and hope!
Thank you for stopping for a few minutes to rest with me in the following reflections. :)
FAITH
Faith is the victory that has overcome the world (1 John 5:4).
My friend Jim Minker has helped me to see that faith is not a good work we do apart from Christ, but faith is the reality of what's already true!
Psalm 1:3 pictures our life as a tree planted by rivers of water. Jim points out that this tree has roots dependent upon the fertile soil. It is not a choice (i.e., a good work), but is a factual relationship. We, too, are already in a dependent relationship with Christ! We are already "rooted in Him" (Colossians 2:7). Our mistake is striving to live by faith we work up instead of just living by faith we already have in Christ!
We are indeed tempted to focus on faith. However, through the ministry of discipleship, God nurtures us to focus on the object of our faith -- Jesus Christ! We are now free to receive all God has for us through believing the reality of already being in Christ.
HOPE
The Lord Jesus Christ is our hope (1 Timothy 1:1).
Another friend from many years ago, T.W. Hunt, taught me that "Hope is the present enjoyment of a future blessing. Faith is knowing the reality of God (of being one with Christ). Now God wants us to enjoy our faith!" I love this definition of hope.
Yes, I long to see Jesus face to face, and to hold His nail-scarred hands, but this doesn't mean I cannot experience the fullness of Christ today through the Holy Spirit!
In John 15:5, Jesus provides the picture of Him being a tree and also the living sap in the tree, with each of us being a branch that abides in Him. A branch doesn't have to strive to abide in a tree; a branch already abides. Because we are a branch of Christ, we have His nature and His life flows through us producing fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We don't have to strive to make this happen...it is who we are! This is indeed a present hope!
LOVE
Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
Because we have faith in being united with Christ, and because we have hope in Christ living through us, we can give to the world the greatest gift of all -- the love of God!
This is not a sweet human love. This is the love of God that was supremely manifested through the cross of Christ, and is now manifested through us to the world! And it is a sacrificial love.
CLOSING
Read about your confident faith, hope, and love in these verses:
Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma (Ephesians 5:2).
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Love,
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