A HOPE SANDWICH -- Devotional for September 21, from "Good Seeds"

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. (I Corinthians 13:13; Hebrews 11:1)

Faith, hope and love make a nice sandwich. The two pieces of bread are faith and love; hope is the meat. Just as without tuna, or ham, or peanut butter, you haven’t got much of a sandwich, so without hope, the slices of faith and love won’t give much satisfaction. This reminds me of an old joke: “Ever had a jam sandwich? It’s pretty boring: it’s just two pieces of bread jammed together!” Well, you can jam faith and love together as much as you want, but without hope, it doesn’t work. I heard Pastor Ray Johnston say I Corinthians 13:13 is the most theological verse in the entire Bible. What he said next convinced me he was right: As important as faith and love are, they’re lifeless apart from hope. We read in Hebrews 11:1,“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” This seems to say that if we don’t have things to hope for, faith can’t happen. And what about love? Real love is rooted in faith: you can’t love someone you don’t trust, right? Love relies on faith, just as faith hinges on hope. Faith and love are two of the most well known and beloved themes of the Christian life. Look at all the sermons preached and books written and songs sung about them. But these “bread slices” don’t work apart from hope. We leave out this “meat” and then wonder why our “sandwich” is so bland! All our efforts in faith and love will fail if we fail in hope. In Revelation 12:10 Satan is called “The accuser of the brethren.” Our greatest enemy’s greatest weapon is discouragement, the “kryptonite” of hope. Discouragement poisons hope, destroying any chance for faith and love to come to life. You don’t have to be a Christian very long before you experience discouragement. Paul certainly had his share – but he learned the antidote and passed it on to us: “Let us not become weary in well doing, for at the proper time (God’s time) we WILL reap a harvest IF we do not give up.” Everyone gets down, but no one needs to stay down. Failing doesn’t make you a failure; failing to bounce back does. Despondency, Depression, Discouragement –- these are the lies of Satan to keep us down until we die as failures for the kingdom, slipping into eternity with our tail between our legs! Galatians 6:9 promises that God will do His part: HE WILL show up, rescue us, and bring a harvest of fruit through us. But for so many of us that harvest never happens. Why? We don’t do our part: “IF WE do not give up,” it says. Too often when we get down, we stay down. Our speaker sent us away with this challenge: “The only one who can stop God from showing up in my life is me!” Everything matters too much for us to stay down! We’ve got to bounce back – and by His grace, we can!