Craig Clouston

Faith, Hope, and Love

Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13

Looking across the room, his gaze fell upon the two candleholders sitting on the table. They’d been a gift to him and his wife on their twenty-fifth anniversary. Four inches square, the relief cuts on the sides held significance to faith and love. A lighthouse illuminating the world was the symbol of faith while a large, flourishing heart, surrounded by stars defined love. It struck him that there wasn’t one for hope. And right now hope was what he needed because hopelessness was threatening to beat him into submission. He knew God was at work. He just wasn’t sure how or where.
Having just been turned down for full-time employment in a job he’d been doing part-time and way behind on the bills, he wondered what God was up to. There seemed to be no resolution. Yet his faith in God’s abiding love, and that of his wife of thirty years, gave him hope. These two constants could never be taken away. God was not taken unawares. He would work things out.

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When things don’t go our way, we can become disillusioned, perhaps even broken. Unless we have a solid foundation built on the knowledge that our lives are anchored in God’s love, we can lose hope. Paul told the Romans at the end of chapter eight there was nowhere they could go that God’s love could not find them. Nothing they could do would separate them from the depth of that love. “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (verse 39).
The events in our lives can bring us low. Whether we stay there is up to us. God wants to encourage us in our trials. We do well to remember we have the greatest love of all at our disposal. That love builds faith and hope. God’s embrace is two moves away—just turn and reach up.

Prayer

“Thank You for the hope we have in You, Abba. Draw me close to You as I reach up and give you my heart for mending. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”