Love perseveres!

It always hopes, it always perseveres. 1 Cor 13:7b

What it means is that love has a long spirit; it will not give up on you.  It will keep expecting the best from you and will always put their best foot forward and keep expecting same.  It will not easily turn away because it always hopes and perseveres.

Remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15?  He took his share of inheritance and left his father’s house to make a life for himself.  For years he was gone, and his father was worried and wondered if his son was doing well.  He didn’t think ‘ my son has taken his property away so I am washing my hands off him’, or think ‘ my useless son is gone and I hope he gets and tastes of the real world’, instead, his heart beat for his son’s welfare and hoped his son would come back home. The father, probably, when he woke up every morning, lifted up his bedroom curtain to see if perhaps his son was back home and at night before he went to bed, would go stand by the gate and watch the road one last time in earnest expectation in the hope that that day would be the day the son would return.   The father hoped, he persevered for years without fail, never giving up on his son’s return.  It takes perseverance to stand at the gate every night to wait for someone. Summer through winter, the man never gave up, because he had hope. 

That is the story of love.  It keeps coming back even when people call it all kinds of names for not turning away and not giving up.  When the servants had forgotten and given up, the father still kept going, when the brother was angry and bitter, the father forgave and kept going to the gate.  Love does not turn its back simply because you did wrong.  It holds on even when it hurts to hold on. 

Love will believe the best because it hopes for the best.   Children or trusting people are the most difficult to hurt and disappoint because they are so filled with hope and persistence.  They don’t know yet the pain of disappointment and somehow because of that hope, people tend to meet their expectation; why? Because what you hope for, you attract.  That is what love does, when love hopes, you can’t help but meet that hope. 

Romans 5:5 such hope (love) never disappoints or deludes or shames, for God’s love has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.   Because love hopes, love will not disappoint you.  

In Philippians 4:12-13, Paul says, he knows of a way to keep hope alive and gain strength and that way is to persevere. To keep going. 

Love keeps going; it keeps getting up one more time. It keeps hoping one more time. Love will keep you pressing on when even those you love have given up on themselves.

I have a friend whose silent love and perseverance kept me strong and gave me hope at a time when I thought nobody loved me or wanted me.  She stood by me even when I was rude, she kept coming, she held on to me and today I can hope and trust because she showed me how.  Love will never give up on you. It will stand by you unconditionally because love is not conditional.  It gives freely, hopes and perseveres



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