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The Very Real Results of Faith, Love, and Hope

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:3

What effects have you seen produced in your life through faith, love, or hope?

Faith, love, and hope are gifts of the Holy Spirit. Despite our use of these words as emotion-words, they are not just good feelings. They are active words. God actively works them in us and they then produce active results in our lives.

Faith:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:8-10

We don’t choose God. God creates faith in us as we hear the promises from His Word. That faith trusts those promises and transforms us. It brings us to life in Christ, trusts in God for all things, and animates that life with works of faith prepared beforehand by God.

Love:

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” – 1 John 4:16

God is love. As we abide in God through faith in Christ Jesus, we abide in love. We begin to see the world through the loving eyes of God and are motivated to act in that love because of the great love God has for us and others.

Hope:

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” – Romans 8:24-25

Sometimes we talk about hope as a kind of wish. I hope XYZ happens, but it might not. The hope we have in Jesus is different. It isn’t a wish. It’s a sure thing. I hope Jesus will raise me on the last day and He definitely will.

When life gets rough and when things seem like they are falling apart, we continue to trust that God is at work and that God will see us through in this life and the next. Our hope is in the unchanging and unfailing promise of God. We may not see it now, but that’s when the hope given to us in Christ carries us through.

Heavenly Father,

Give us faith to believe in your promise of salvation and abundant life. Give us love to love the world as you have loved us in Christ. Give us hope regardless of the circumstances around us. In Jesus name, we pray,

Amen

In Christ’s Service,

Pastor Kurt