Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Difference Between Faith, Hope and Love

A dear friend wrote this yesterday on my Facebook wall after I posted a status update that Kim was back at home and doing well:  Amen!!! There is no doubt in my mind that God is watching over Kim. Have a beautiful weekend. BTW you should consider taking all of your updates and making it into an inspirational book. A book about love, hope and endless faith!!! Love you guys!!

What an encouraging post. Just so you know, this amazing lady is one of the most positive, energetic and loving people you will ever meet but when she mentioned, "love, hope and endless faith", something seemed amiss to me. I then remembered those three words coincided with one of my recent Word For Today posts (link here, repasted below) entitled "The Greatness of Love". Strangely, it was written about 3 months ago on October 18th, 2011 - while the cancer was likely just beginning to spread in Kim's body. 
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The Greatness of Love (10/18/11)

"So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." -1 Corinthians 13:13

Faith. Hope. Love. We see this triumvirate appear often in the New Testament (e.g. Eph 4:2-5, Col 1:4-5, 1 Thess 1:3) and they appear to share equal standing but in 1 Cor 13 we find that LOVE > FAITH and HOPE. Have you ever wondered why?

Faith is what is needed for salvation (Eph 2:8-9) and without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Hope is our source of joy in troubles and gives us the strength to persevere (1 Thess 4:13). So why is love greater?

Faith will one day become unnecessary because we will see with our eyes that which we have believed in our hearts (1 Cor 13:12). Hope will soon be moot because every promise of God will be fulfilled to the last letter and will be an indisputable reality. Love? Well, love is unique because love endures....forever. And the One who is infinite and who is love will lavish His beloved with an infinite love for all of eternity. May the eternal love of God overwhelm you today.

Peter
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So our dear friend was right...almost. Every story, on this side of heaven, in which we see Jesus - is ultimately a story that overflows with love, hope and faith. But the truth is faith is not endless. It will end - as will hope. They will end upon Jesus' return. Only love is endless. Love will endure - and it will endure forever.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His love endures forever... -Psalm 118:1


In His Grace,

Peter & Kim

4 comments:

  1. WOW~ GOOD WORD! such a simple explanation, but such a strong smack in the head :) thank you so much for encouraging others during these tough times! still praying for you and your family!

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  2. Here, here. Thanks for the post!

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  3. In addition to its eternal nature, love is the greatest because it is not selfish. Love's concern is about others. Infact love is not looking for anything of his own because it is not lacking anything and as such it is completely perfect. So it doesn't need to hope or to have any faith for any condition or circumstances to change. I want to say here that in love everything is made perfect.

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