Good Afternoon, 

It’s that time again to look at and consider (deeply ponder) the word of Almighty God found spoken through the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He wrote to them to help them get a grip on the proper use of spiritual gifts. And beginning in the thirteenth chapter, he comes to the more excellent way… namely, doing all things with the motivation of love.

Recently in our messages, we’ve seen love in action. Not only does love bear all things and believe all things, but look what else it does…

1^st Corinthians 13:7b
Love… hopes all things…

The concept of hope is rich in meaning. For our particular verse, I looked to the Blue Letter Bible website to get the Greek word for hope, and it is:

Elpizō – a verb meaning to hopefully trust

Now to see how hope is trusting, just consider this common everyday phrase, “I sure hope so!” I would respond with such a phrase when asked “Will you get paid this Friday?” My hope is trusting because my mortgage payment is automatically withdrawn from my bank account, ha!

Hope also believes. This is easy to see too, for what happens to a person when they have no hope? Despair sets in… because there seems to be a finality to it all. There is no hope left, how sad. But then, a little flicker of hope sets in and everything changes. There is a way out of despair, and hope shows the way. See?

The writer of Hebrews uses faith and hope in the same statement…

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Love hopes because it trusts the character of God.

May we all experience this hope, amen!

**Comments/ questions/ testimonies/ objections most encouraged!

Dear Lord, thank you for this time to consider Your word and Your ways. May our thoughts, words, and deeds bring You glory… and glory to You alone. –Amen

Peace,
Jim