"The Uplook"
"Charity (love) … hopeth all things" (I Corinthians 13:7).
What did the Apostle Paul mean by correlating the love of God with hope? One answer lies in the truth that if we know our Lord's love in light of Scripture, we realize He is present and involved in everything in our lives. Whatever our natural outlook on life, that is, whether we tend to see the cup as half full or half empty, we find ourselves enabled to have much confidence regarding future circumstances, situations, and conditions. We know that hard and difficult things will happen to us and to those we love. We may feel trepidation about those prospects. However, we learn to replace the temptation to fear with the remembrance of faith. We affirm that the love of God supplies the greatest reality of everything that will ever come our way. He will be with us as we go, and will be awaiting us when we arrive.
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:2).
Left to myself, I naturally tend to see the cup as not half full or empty, but rather as lying shattered on the floor (I'm not sure if my fleshly disposition of negativity is inherited, learned or both). Were it not for the Biblical truth we consider, I shudder to think how bleak my outlook on life would be. Only the Uplook, based on the love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, delivers me from fear unto hope. "Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ" (II Corinthians 2:14). Thereby the Holy Spirit works to empower an attitude and perspective of glorious expectation rather anticipation of disaster. God's love for us and within us fosters the perspective of hope - the Uplook - whereby we overcome our natural tendencies by the realization that our Lord devotedly awaits us in all things and at every destination…
"My expectation is from Him."
(Psalm 62:5)
"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."
(Isaiah 56:3)
Weekly Memory Verse
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."
(Psalm 27:8)
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