Day 30: Love Hopes All Things

I’ll never forget the time a good friend listened as I shared the special dream I held close to my heart.  I hadn’t told a soul about my secret hope.  She looked at me and said with conviction, “I’m believing with you that this dream–which I sense is from God–will come true!”  Hope filled my soul.  I breathed in fresh resolve to keep standing on what I believed was a promise from God.  My friend was now “hoping with” me, and that gave me strength.  It was Jesus Himself who said to his followers:  “If two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19, 20).

Through a remarkable series of circumstances, my dream eventually came true.  As someone once said, “Our dreams are the seeds of reality.”  My hope did become reality–and I feel sure the “prayer of agreement” with my friend helped pave the way.

Love does that, you know.  It shares the dreams of another.  Love hopes with someone.  When you think about it, hope is an action.  A verb.  It’s something you do.  The Bible even tells us that hope is a practical way to show  love:  “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Love hopes all things.  That means that nothing within the realm of God’s will is off limits.  Love also bears, believes, and endures all things.  Love believes for our dreams to come true, endures with us when the going gets rough, bears with us when we get weary.  Love characterizes God, for God is love (1 John 4:18).

We are called to carry His love into a broken and dying world.  A weary people, desperate for the “thrill of hope.”  So as we reflect on 30 Days of Hopeful, let’s rejoice in the wonderful assurance of God’s love for us–let’s get a fresh grip on our hopes and dreams.

The Bible tells us a secret: Faith, hope, and love are eternal (1 Corinthians 13:13).   What’s more, love never fails.   And love hopes all things, so a God-given dream cannot die.  Because if our dream is His dream, He will work in us and through us to accomplish His will.

We’ve had 30 days to reflect on hope–30 days to rekindle the fires of our dreams.   Moving forward, let’s remember to be alert and watchful as we go into the world today: Look around you.  Whose dream is dying?   Is there a hurting face in your crowd who needs hope–somebody you can “hope with?” What more fitting season than Christmas to sow seeds of hope into the lives of those who are thirsty for hope.