7 (charity) Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
When you read this verse it really stresses one strong theme – positivity.
True love breeds positivity. There is nothing negative in it’s nature at all. It is constantly looking for the good, the silver lining, the blessing inside the challenge. It sees the best in people and situations, not because it is blind but because love is a choice…a choice to see the good. I will never forget a teacher of mine in a “Keepers at Home” class when I was young who said “When you are dating, you tend to put on rose colored glasses but after the wedding, we tend to trade them for magnifying glasses. What we should be doing is wearing our magnifying glasses during the dating process and replace them with rose colored glasses after we get married.” Sandy Samec was a very wise women and that concept has stuck with me for years.
“Beareth all things”
Love is strong when it is real. It has to be in order to survive real life. It sometimes faces obstacles that seem insurmountable like financial stress, physical challenges or the loss of loved ones. How do marriages survive job losses, or cancer, or miscarriages, or serious personal problems? Through the strength of real love. The love found in a personal relationship with God and the human love that chooses to find the tiny glimmer of hope and grasp it with all it’s might.
“believeth all things, hopeth all things”
Love also has the characteristic of faith. Faith in the future, faith in people, faith in situations. It believes that the better outcome is a sure thing. It has faith that there is going to be a rainbow once this storm has passed. It is firmly persuaded that God works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. You tell faith that you have to move and it replies “I bet the new house will be a place for happy memories”. You tell love that there is no hope, that spouse will never change their ways and it replies “nothing is impossible with God”. You tell love anything negative and it will always respond with hope for a better future.
“endureth all things”
Nothing in this world is perfect because of sin. Therefore, it is inevitable that love will face serious challenges. The Devil is real and his best tactic is to get you to lose site of God’s love and our love for each other. Bitterness, anger, hurt, guilt; he will use any and all of these to break down love and get us to focus on the rain instead of the rainbow. Thankfully, the love of God toward us is perfect and unbreakable. The love we have towards each other is not perfect but does have the ability to endure anything and survive if we are faithfully choosing to love instead of focus on the problem. Keep your eyes fixed on God and your heart focused on choosing love over the stress of the challenge at hand and there will be no limit to love’s strength.
I’d almost think you know exactly what’s going on with me today! Thank you so much, Holly, you have no idea how much I need this. I’ve been going through some personal problems lately that are just about to crush me. My “fight or flight” instinct is in overdrive and I’m too tired to fight and because I’m weak all I want lately is just to be out of this situation. Sharing this passage of Scripture and your thoughts on it is giving me a little bit of hope that by God’s grace I can hang on a little longer. Thanks. 🙂