1 Corinthians 13:7,13
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Hope is mentioned in over one hundred places in the Bible. I believe that a good definition of hope for our purpose is the following. Hope is defined as reliance on God's blessing and provision, the expectation of future good.
In the verse under consideration, Paul tells the citizens of Corinth that hope is one of the great virtues. Faith, hope and love are intertwined. Love is the supreme virtue, but that does not imply that Christians can dispense with faith and hope. True love is both hopeful and faithful.
Our hope of immortality is assured not in any estimate of the nature of the soul, but in what we know about God, especially as revealed in Jesus Christ. The essence of heaven has been described as even with all man ever learns about the infinite being who created everything and who gave him life, and whose loving kindness is greater than life, there is still more to know. This is the basis of hope that abides.
Prayer: Lord, we pause and acknowledge you as God, and we can only partially understand your power and love. Help us as we continue our journey to learn more about you, and thank you for sending Jesus Christ to show us to the way to salvation. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment