Love.

So I was going for the theme of faith, hope and love because 1 Corinthains 13:13 says "and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

In my other posts I've talked about how our hope allows us to overcome anything thrown at us because of our future promise but to keep our hope alive we have faith which is believing in something that we don't see and requires us to be active. It means stepping out of the norm in boldness because we are sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see. The next one then is love and 1 Cor 13 tells us that this is the greatest of the 3.

Now, the natural perception of love is a matter of feelings. It's that little flutter in the pit of your stomach when your eyes meet from across the room and you know that it was 'love at first sight'. Or it's that romance thats portrayed in every chick flick or novel when they live happily ever after. But its that type of 'love' that gets thrown around and becomes meaningless. It's easily broken and has the tendancy to leave you disatisfied.
However, the bible tells us about a love that never fails.

This is love;

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Cor 13:4-8)

1 John 4:16 says "God is love." and therefore God is, by very nature, everything you just read about love. He is patient, He is Kind, He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud. He is not rude, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no record of wrongs. He does not delight in evil but He rejoices with the truth! He always protects, always trusts, always perseveres. He never fails. That is such an amazing truth. To know that God loves each of us with that kind of love, that his love for us is that which perseveres, He never gives up on us. It is impossible for God do go against who He is and if He IS love then He does EVERYTHING in love.

Jesus tells us that we are to love one another as He has loved us (John 13:34).

If we are showing this love, then we are showing the very nature of God. Jesus went on to say to His disciples that people will know that they were His disciples by the way they love one another because it wouldnt be a love that the world knew, it would be the love that God showed by sending His Son to die for us. It is because we have His Spirit living in us that we are able to do everything in love and we can be like Jesus in the way we love eachother.

The bible even goes as far to say that if we do something without love, we are nothing. Which means that, as Jesus did, we are to do everything in love.

The world will know us by our love.

Faith

After writing my last post, my brilliant brother popped up on facebook to tell me that although it's good to have hope, if you only have hope, you soon become hopeless. We need faith to keep our hope alive.

What is faith? Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see. It isn't merely a way of thinking...Faith is an action word. James 2:26 says that faith without deeds is dead.  We are required to put our faith into action. In James 2:14 he asks the question, "what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" The basis of his question was this; That even the devil believes in God in that way, but it won't save him from God's judgement. It's not enough to just believe, our actions need to mirror what we believe. Faith expresses itself through obedience and therefore true faith will show in the way we live our lives. This doesn't mean living according to a set of rules and regulations, we are justified by faith, not by the law and therefore we live by faith. This requires us to believe in what we don't see, and live each moment by the power of the Spirit (cool!) and not by our own human effort. Our faith has to be in Jesus and not in our good deeds or our striving to please God by living by the law. It means that when God speaks, we move. When God asks, we obey.

In Luke 18:8 Jesus asks "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
To have faith is to carry on, sure of what we hope for, without giving in. Even when we're not seeing the immediate results, we see the ultimate end where our hope is anchored and that is how we can live by faith.

So when Jesus returns, will he have a people who have given up hope or a people who say an almighty "YES LORD" when he speaks?

Will he find faith?