Love Hopes All Things

"...hopeth all things,..." I Corinthians 13:7

To hope for something is to expect it to happen. Hope confides its heart to the one that will bring about its desire, waiting with great expectation for the outcome it wants.

Hope can't see what it wants. If it could, it would not be hope.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:24-25)

We trained Jasmine, our dog, to "wait" for us when we leave the house. Before we walk through the front door we tell her to "sit and wait." Wait isn't the same as stay. "Stay" means don't move. "Wait" means you remain here until we get back, but you are free to chew on a bone or play with a toy. And "wait" means "we will be back shortly; you can count on it."

Jasmine sits, sometimes whines, wags her tail, and waits, fully expecting us to return. She might go to her crate and sleep. She might chew on a bone. She might even play with a toy, but she anticipates we will once again come through that front door. In other words, Jasmine hopes for our return--she's confident that we will. That is what hope means.

Love hopes all things. In confidence, it moves forward in life. Maybe something bad happens, but love will trust that good will come of it. Maybe someone makes a mistake, but love will hope that person will learn to not do it again. Maybe someone is walking along the edge of temptation, but love will trust that person will not fall off the edge into sin.

Have you ever had anyone try to discourage you from meeting a goal? I have. Such a person is not loving me at that moment. While love takes pleasure in truth, which may not be positive, it will hope for the best.

Love expects good to happen, and love looks for the good in people, expecting to see it. In fact, it is confident that it will see the results it desires. And it is willing to bear the consequences when someone let's it down.

Love waits for the good. It waits for God's work to be done in someone's life. It waits in anticipation that what it longs for will happen.

Love has perfect persevering faith. Love confides itself into the hands of God--fully surrenders and has complete faith in God's goodness, righteousness, love, and justice--to the end for the good of another or for the glory and honor of God, and to have a good testimony before God and man.

There is an element of patience in hope. We already know that love is to be patient, but now we know that patience must also be executed through the trust for a good outcome.

In the context of I Corinthians 13, the hope love has is a desire for the best for others. Godly love is always directed toward others. It is never me-ward. The strength behind love is in its trust and faith in God. That faith in God holds love firm against prevailing winds of doubt and hurt and disappointment. It will never be torn up by the tornadoes of others sins or the hurricanes of persecution. The tsunamis of hate and the volcanic tirades of another will not dispel love's perseverance, love's hope, love's willingness to bear all things.

In its patient perseverance, we see love's hope.