Faith, Hope and Love

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 NASB)

There's a Maori proverb that says "turn your eyes to the sun and the shadows fall behind you". How true! What keeps us going is often the knowledge that there is something better ahead. 

What do we do when things are hard? Do we give up or can we be like the writer of Hebrews when he says "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith". Jesus could see beyond the cross and saw the eternal joy which was there for him. 

What do we look at?

Are we focussed on our circumstances and allow them to drag us down and cause us to lose hope? Or, are we able to look the other way, to let the shadows fall behind us as we look to the source of our life? Are we able to lift our eyes and put our hope in him? Hope is an expectation or desire for a particular thing to happen. As we hope in him we have set out on a journey that leads to our freedom and salvation. 

There's a quote I like (which only works in English): "You gotta have hope. Without hope life is meaningless. Without hope life is meaning less and less". 

When I talk about hope it is not a human hope where we want everything to work out the right way. It is the assurance that believes all his promises are "yes and amen". It is, like Abraham, a desire to discover the city whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:10). It is a belief that we can see things "that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17).

It is a hope that comes out of love. The foundation of his love in our lives. It's a hope we experience once we have placed our trust and dependency on him, knowing that his love is all we need to sustain and carry us. After all, "faith, hope and love remain; but the greatest is love. Therefore pursue love.... " (1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1).

Turn your face to the Son and let the shadows of life fall behind you.