“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:7
March 10, 2023
Love chooses to be confident about the future. This is not sentimental optimism. The love that the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer is courageous. “It does not stop loving because it is not loved in return or because it is deceived. Love hopes for the best, and it forgives not once or even seven times, but seventy times seven. Love is not even counting (J. Boice). Do I take the failure of someone else as final? Do I keep on working toward what should be? No one is hopeless until their life is finished on this earth. The hopefulness of true love is the best medicine for discouragement. In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian did not go it alone to the gates of heaven. “For there was one whose name was Hopeful (being made so by the beholding of Christian and Faithful in theirs words and behavior, in their sufferings at the fair) who joined himself unto him, and entering into a brotherly covenant, told him he would be his companion.” Rejoice in Christ’s hope-filled love that took Him to the cross and will bring Him back again to make everything right.
H
“O Lord over all the circumstances of life, infuse my love toward friend and foe with the fixed confidence of ultimate triumph and victory.”