7hopes all things, (1 Corinthians 13:1-13 )[simple_tooltip content=’1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’](1 Corinthians 13:1-13)[/simple_tooltip]
Hopelessness is a terrible thing. God’s Word says, „Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18). Lack of hope is behind most, if not all, of the self-destruction we see in the lives of people today. Those who don’t have a strong faith in the future throw today away without any consideration of the consequences. The destructive habits of people are rooted in despair or hopelessness. Jesus used the fool who said, “Let’s eat, drink, and be merry” [simple_tooltip content=’And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’](Luke 12:19)[/simple_tooltip] as an example of someone without vision for his future. Those who don’t live with one eye on the future are headed for disaster.
Why is it that most of society is without hope? It’s because God’s love is the source of true hope, and there’s a genuine famine in the world today of the truth of God’s love for us. On the whole, religion tells us of God’s holiness and our relative unworthiness, but the true love of God is not a reality in the hearts of most people—even most Christian people. Luck and fate don’t generate hope. Only knowing a personal, loving God is working all things for our good [simple_tooltip content=’And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.’](Rom. 8:28)[/simple_tooltip] gives us true and lasting hope. God’s kind of love hopes all things.
God has a perfect plan for your life. Regardless of where you are now—no matter how far off the track you may have strayed—God has a perfect course plotted for you to where you’re supposed to be [simple_tooltip content=’For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.’](Jer. 29:11)[/simple_tooltip]. He loves you in spite of what you have or haven’t done. As you believe this today, hope will spring up in your heart.
