What advice would you give to your 20 year old self?
CONVERSATIONS
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
1. Faith
Faith is the characteristic that the Bible directly connects with pleasing God. You could see in several verses of the New Testament that Jesus was either moved to marvel or disappointment by the level of faith of the people he encountered.
When the centurion in Matthew 8 told Jesus that he was not worthy of Jesus presence in his home, Jesus marvelled at the faith of this man to understand the authority Jesus had. On the other hand, when Jesus was rejected in his home town of Nazareth, the Bible tells us that he did not perform many works there because of their unbelief (Matthew 13: 54-58).
When we live by faith, we live with a healthy fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, as said in the Bible, is what gives us wisdom in all that we do (Proverbs 9:10).
2. Hope The Gospel is ultimately a message of hope. That being said, the characteristic of hope should be imbibed by all Christians; since we can be rest assured that there is eternal life for all who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Hope is the substance of faith. Hebrews describes hope in the context of faith through this verse:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Hebrew 11:1
When we live in hope, we discern situations with an eternal perspective. We will know that whatever adversities we are facing are only temporary, and that there's always something to look forward to.
3. Love
Among the three listed, the greatest cited was love. The reason is because love is who God is. For this, we cannot separate the concept of love from God.
Love is how God operates. It is what brought God to send Jesus to save us in the first place (John 3: 16). In fact, the Bible warns that:
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8
When we live with love, we live with Christ in mind. We operate with the desire to be like Christ, and at the same time, glorify Christ.
You need to have and know who love is, before you can even have faith or hope. After all, life is made memorable by the relationships you've built and kept, because of the love you've first experienced in Christ.
Lets pray.
Dear Father,
Thank You for this timely reminder on faith, hope, and love. Lord, we pray for the grace and freedom to apply this in every aspect of our lives.
Lord, may the years gone by or the pains of the past not hinder us from really seeing this come true for our lives. May we have a childlike heart that remains in awe of who You are every single day.
We pray for daily reminders to operate in faith, hope, and love. We pray for also opportunities to share the Gospel with others, as they see You through our lives. May we be Your salt and light to this world, so that You may be glorified and known by all men.
This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.
My Comments Policy
While my site offers visitors the ability to converse, I have a few ground rules so that our conversations will remain civil and courteous.
1. You must register in order to leave a comment. I don’t entertain pseudo, anonymous or bogus individuals. This site is my home (it has a Home Page, get it). I don’t let strangers who don’t introduce themselves into my home.
2. I love questions. I love them because a lot of times they are similar to someone else’s questions and can even trigger other questions from others. Questions also keep us all sharp. This is also why I respond to them as best as I can and at the soonest possible time. I believe that group answering benefits more people than private email exchanges.
3. We don’t have to agree. Debates are welcome. However, whether it is with me or any other visitors of my site, my rule is this: disagree if you must but keep things civil. That’s just how I run my home, and you are a visitor here. No shouting; I have seen it done in writing. No cursing and no insulting.
4. I reserve the right to delete your comments. Like I said, this is my home. I do not have an obligation to publish your comments. As a human being, you may enjoy the freedom to express your opinions on your own site but not on mine. To be specific, I will delete your comments if you post content that is in my sole opinion: (a) snarky; (b) off-topic; (c) libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate my sense of decorum, civility or any law, including intellectual property laws; or (d) “spam,” i.e. an attempt to advertise, solicit, or otherwise promote goods and services. You may, however, post a link to your site or your most recent blog entry.
5. You retain ownership of your comments. I do not own them and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By commenting on my site, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you will relieve me from any and all liability that may result from those posts.
6. You grant me the license to post your comments. This license is worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free. By posting comments on my site, you automatically grant me the right to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, and distribute your comments in any format, including but not limited to a blog, in a book, video, or presentation.
In short, my goal is to host interesting conversations with caring, honest, and respectful people. I believe this clear and simple comments policy will facilitate this.
