“Three things will last
forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians
13:13).
Faith, hope, and love are necessary
in my life. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Without hope it is
hard to believe God can be trusted to keep His promises. Without love I will
not see beyond my own selfishness. Faith, hope, and love flourish together. Each
one is essential and necessary for His greatest purpose. But one is the greater
than the others, and that is love.
If I have the gift of prophecy and
understand God’s higher ways—if I possess all knowledge and have a faith that
can move mountains, but don’t love others, I am nothing. If I unselfishly give
everything I have to the poor and in my boasting don’t love others, I gain
nothing. Love is patient. It is never jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It
does not demand its own way. It does not get irritated, and keeps no record of
when it is wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the
truth wins. Love always perseveres and never gives up. It never loses faith, is
always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance of life.
One day prophecy—speaking in
unknown languages—special knowledge—and all the gifts that impart His power will
become useless. Love outlasts all of these. It endures forever! Right now what
I know and understand is partial and incomplete. Prophecy can’t reveal all of
His purpose. The knowledge that the spiritual gifts grant is only partial, and
don’t reveal His whole picture. The day He returns to complete the whole picture
is the day these partial things will have no meaning. What will remain be will
my faith, hope, and love He has perfected in me.
When I was a child, I spoke and
thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish
things. Spiritually I am still so much a child—not grasping the whole picture He
will complete when He returns. Now I only see things imperfectly—like puzzling
reflections in a mirror. All that I know now is limited and incomplete, but one
day I will know everything unquestionably. I will understand the depths of His love
from His perspective and not my own limited one. For now I put away my childish
understanding, and allow Him to perfect in me what I will one day understand in
His perfect clarity. Faith, hope, and
love are the things which will carry me from my partial understanding of His
purpose in this world now into the completed revelation of His picture in the
next. It is His love on Calvary which has sealed the promise. He is the
greatest love.
© 2017 Lynn Lacher
No comments:
Post a Comment