Faith, Hope and Love

Written by Suzanne Benner

Have you lost all hope for the future? We would like to pray for you.

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30am EDT.

“We continually 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).

Many times in Scripture the attributes of faith, hope and love are extolled, but here we discover what these qualities yield in our lives.

WORK produced by FAITH

Just as James stated “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17), so here Paul tells us that it is our faith in God which motivates and accomplishes good works in our lives.

LABOR prompted by LOVE

Love is never passive, it urges us to act. Love prompts us to serve the least and lonely of this world, to pray for the brokenhearted and to the visit the sick. “[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Questions about faith? Bring your doubts
Why would I need faith?: Find some answers

ENDURANCE inspired by HOPE

It was the hope of salvation and eternal life with God that enabled Paul to bear the many hardships he faced. The man who was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked and imprisoned wrote, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Faith, hope and love aren’t characteristics that one can keep hidden, nor do they exist in isolation. We learn here in God’s Word that faith produces work; love prompts labor and hope inspires us to endure in the most difficult circumstances.

Gracious God, I pray that you would build in me faith, hope and love. And I pray that everyone around me would know that You are at work because of the good these characteristics produce in my life.

Questions: Who can you thank God for because of the evidence of faith, hope and love in their lives? Which of these elements do you need to focus on today?

About the Author Suzanne Benner

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, The Cross, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

Tags: endurance, faith, God, hope, labor, love, passive, paul, salvation, serve, Suzanne Benner, work

2 Responses to “Faith, Hope and Love”

Loading comments
kanj says:

April 17, 2009 at 3:52 pm

suzanne, thank you for this devotional. the person that i thank God is a distant relative whom in 20 years, I’v seen on two hands. but the one time we did connect she gave me this little book of devotionals. I thanked her and put the book on the shelf. not until about 4 years later, did I not only find the book, I realized that she(devote Christian) saw my pain and knew the answer, the only answer—Jesus Christ. the love affair started.
today I need to focus on hope as I have been feeling somewhat un-focused as of late and un-sure as to why. but this doesn’t deter me in any way, shape or form in telling Jesus how much I love Him.
sharon b says:

April 15, 2009 at 2:58 pm

thank you for this wonderful devotional