love always hopes

Most of my disappointments have come in life because of my own expectations. I guess that comes as no surprise. If you don't expect much you can't get hurt, right? The lower my expectations of others, the less they can hurt me.

But the longer you live in the land of low expectations, the more you pull inside yourself (and that's no treat, either, my friend). If you don't expect, eventually you learn to live without, and that's not Christlike at all. Love "always hopes."

The Christ-follower is forced to ask, "always hopes" in what? We could never be so small as to say that we "always hope" that everything will work out, or that we "always hope" that someone will finally do what they should do to make us happy. No. We don't hope in hope, or expect our spouse to be "god" to us.

Love always hopes in God.

But what does that mean? "I hope He'll work things out"? To some degree--after all, he does work "in all things for the good of those who love Him." But it means much more than that. Here are a couple of thoughts as we move into this Labor Day Weekend regarding "hope in God."

• We vote our heartfelt conscience knowing that whoever is the next President of the US, God reigns over our conscience and soul.
• We work with our hands knowing that our chief need--the need for forgiveness from sin by the holy God is D-O-N-E.
• We work toward peace in our homes remembering that peace with God is complete.
• We wrestle with expectations of our spouse or children, but quickly recall that God's expectations of us were settled in His Son on His cross. He speaks peace over me!
• We actually have strong encouragement of heart when we connect with people in this world in friendship, but, glory of glories! be encouraged! in Christ, you are a friend of God.
• We are actually happy when income exceeds outgo, but hope is constantly pressing on to understand that God supplies our every need according to His riches in Christ Jesus.
• We are happier or more sad depending on feelings and days, which change. God never changes and calls us to rejoice in Him (it's really not a problem for me to say that again: rejoice in the Lord!).
• No one likes physical pain and bad diagnoses, but we will all die. That's no reason to "mourn like those who don't have any hope." Hey (Revelation 2, church at Smyrna), God will call some to be known for persecution and poverty. It's gonna be rough. But the second death won't hurt a bit.

This Labor Day weekend I am absolutely basking in the knowledge that God has done the Labor which has won freedom for my soul forever. No matter the circumstance of life, God is life. When we hope in him, there is no circumstance that will rob our joy.