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Matt’s Substack 

Matt Pearson

Sep 17, 2024

Faith, Hope, and Love. Blah, blah, blah. So What?

More Often than We Might Think, Pray Prayers for Things that Can't Be Measured

 

Paul closes the beloved 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians with these words:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).

Okay. Great. So what? Faith, hope, and love are important and the most important one is love. Wonderful. Blah. Blah. Blah. Now what? What are we supposed to do with that?

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This morning I found myself praying for these invisible qualities to be increased in my spirit. These traits no one can see. These virtues hidden from physical sight. I prayed them for myself. For my family. For the church God has called me to pastor. For friends He brought to mind today.

I abandoned my normal prayer ritual and list today. I didn’t pray very much for the physical. For behavior. For healing. For safety. For conversations. These things have their place, to be sure. But that’s not where my prayers went today. I found myself praying for things I cannot see or measure or verify or authenticate. Faith, hope, and love. So what? And why did my prayers shift today?

I came across this explosive gem in 1 Thessalonians 1:

“We 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.” (v. 3)

Did you catch that? Paul commends the Thessalonian believers for their work, labor, and endurance. Nothing necessarily crazy about that. But he does it by couching it in a way that reveals what drove their behavior: faith, love, and hope.

Let’s not race by this too quickly. The implications of this are massive. There are good and healthy motivators for action in the world. And there are bad and unhealthy ones. The Thessalonians? The work they did was a result of their faith. The labor they exerted was due to love. And they endured difficulty due to being inspired by hope. The invisible traits of faith, love, and hope were revealed in their work, labor, and endurance.

 

 

Photo by Rachel Coyne on Unsplash

This begs a question in my mind: Why do I do what I do for the Lord? What’s the driving force behind my Christian action in the world? What’s the unseen engine driving the vehicle of my life? Could Paul say of me that my work, labor, and endurance is due to my faith, love, and hope? Or would he say that it’s pretty obvious I do what I do out of duty or guilt or fear or people-pleasing or legalistic obligation?

What about you? What prompts your work, labor, and endurance in the Lord?

Faith that the once dead, now living Jesus is alive and at work in the world, inviting you to join Him in what He’s doing? Or dry duty that is driven by a pesky voice telling you you’re “supposed to because you are a Christian”? Love for others to be well, be whole, be complete in Christ? Or labor that is driven by a desire to be seen by others that only masks as love. Labor that is driven by genuine love for the person right in front of you? Or labor that is driven by a desire to check it off your list so you can say you “did enough” for God today? Endurance due to the hope you have in the present and eternal reign of Christ over the world? Or endurance driven by fear that if you don’t do something, everything will fall apart? Endurance because of your anchored hope in a greater reality that is to come? Or endurance with morose thinking: “Oh well. It is what it is.”

 

 

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

You can see why I found myself praying for the invisible. What is going on in our spirit will prompt what is done in our actions. Fixing our behavior isn’t the goal. Telling someone to “stop this!” or “start that!” never works. Having a Spirit-transformed soul is what we’re after. A God touched spirit with continual growth in faith and love and hope. This is what prompts proper work and labor and endurance.

Let me challenge you to skip your normal prayer list for today (don’t panic. . .it will be waiting for you tomorrow). For yourself and the people God puts on your mind and heart today - why don’t you pray for them to grow in their faith, in their love, and in their hope? You and I won’t be able to see the virtues. But we will know it when they are present. Most of us don’t need to wash the outside of our cup. It’s the inside that needs a good scrubbing.

Faith, hope, and love. Unseen. So what? Let’s pray ‘em for one another. Then we’ll see.