Today the Lord had me meditating on what Paul said are the three things that remain. Or we could say the things that “count”. They are FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. These are all very positive qualities!
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV) — And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
HOPE is God’s gift of expectation for good. It’s an attitude. There is never a situation without hope if we are truly looking to God. Our attitude determines our altitude!
LOVE is God’s character. It is God’s care and concern for us. It always champions what’s right. He cares for the high and the low and everyone in between.
FAITH is the dynamic of God that acts and speaks positively, and moves forward in the energy and power of the Spirit of God! It’s faces problems with confidence in God, without complaining and “hang-dogging”.
2 Corinthians 4:13 (GW) — The following is written, “I believed; therefore, I spoke.” We have that same spirit of faith. We also believe; therefore, we also speak.
All three of these that remain are POSITIVE qualities! HOPE filled, LOVE acting, FAITH energized living!
So in light of the power of those three awesome qualities that remain, let’s avoid the trap of becoming the kind of person who is missing these qualities — i.e. someone who is negative, critical and judgmental of others, someone who is divisive and proud, highly opinionated, always right, religious instead of relational, independent instead of interdependent, extreme instead of balanced, often soap-box driven or involved in the vitriol of the current atmosphere of today. (to avoid the drain, I actually often try to avoid people like that except when trying to help them…)
INSTEAD, let’s lift others up and build God’s family the church in a healthy way, following godly pastors and leaders, living by these three qualities that REMAIN which God gave us through the apostle Paul.
After nearly 40 years of pastoring, I think I can say that is the heart of God and the right way forward today!
(For further study, it’s really the spirit of Jesus’ teaching and prayer in John 13-17.)