Alba 1-18-2026
LOVE ALWAYS HOPES
I Corinthians 13:7
In a Peanuts comic strip, it shows Snoopy thinking to himself: “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Ohh...there’s so little hope for advancement.” He sounds a little hopeless. You don’t have to be a very clever observer to notice that we live in a world that struggles against hopelessness. If you talk to people at all, you are going to get in a conversation with someone who is going to tell you that they are discouraged. Listen to any of the radio talk shows or watch the news and you are going to hear people who are cynical about life. They think the world is going down the tubes. On a world scale, it seems that we go from crisis to crisis.
Disappointment is known to all humans; we all experience it. But we have a choice in the way we respond to it. A friend of Thomas Edison once tried to console the inventor after a series of experiments had failed to achieve the results for which Edison was looking. “It’s too bad”, said the friend, “to do all of that work without results.” To which Edison replied, “Oh, we have lots of results. We know 700 things that won’t work!” He would continue his experiments because he had hope that eventually he could find what would work. Hope makes the difference. In the same way that hope is so important in various areas of life, I Corinthians 13:7 tells us that it is very important in love.
That verse says that love “hopes all things” or love “always hopes”. Hope is just one the of the things listed in this chapter about love. But as important as patience and kindness and humility and unselfishness are to a proper expression of love, hope is also needed.
1. The Necessity for Hope
Some time ago, a hydroelectric dam was slated to be built across a valley in New England. The people in a small town in the valley were to be relocated because the resulting reservoir would flood the town. During the time between the decision to build the dam and its eventual completion, the town became run down. What had once been a beautiful little town ended its days as an eyesore. Explaining this, one town resident said, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no work in the present.”
Hope is what gives one the stamina to keep going even when it is unclear what the future holds. Hope is what keeps us going when things get tough. Hope is what inspires us to grow and change for the better. Hope is what makes us look forward to the future with joy and anticipation. “Where there’s life, there’s hope” is the old saying, usually applied to people suffering physically. It is true spiritually as well. I think we can turn that phrase around the opposite direction and get meaning as well: “Where there’s hope, there’s life!” In Christ there are no hopeless causes. There are no lost causes.
Romans 15:13 says, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” This verse is part of Paul’s prayer for the Roman Christians who were facing persecution and division. Paul prayed that they would experience God’s hope, joy and peace as they trusted in Him. God, because of His love for us, has given us precious promises. Biblical hope is the confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises and plans for us and our families.
In a marriage, if both partners put their hope in the promises of God and have faith that He will be with them in the daily issues of life, the couple can survive and thrive through the ups and downs that come to every person.
Where there is hope, it is like lighting a candle in the darkness. Emil Brunner said, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of life.” Someone else rightly said, “Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian…[sees] an endless hope.”
The British philosopher, Bertrand Russell, was an outspoken atheist. He even wrote a book called “Why I Am Not A Christian”. When Russell was 81 years old, he was interviewed on a British Broadcasting Corporation radio talk show. The interviewer asked him what he had to hang onto when death was obviously so close. Russell responded, “I have nothing to hang onto but grim, unyielding despair.” What an honest yet hopeless response. You see, when you live only for this life, when you invest your life in the flesh, when you think that this is all there is, you can’t help but live in despair. But for those of us who are in Christ Jesus there is hope, because we anticipate a time when death and decay will no longer exist. That leads us to discover...
2. The Reason for Hope
When we watch or hear the news each day, it can shape a sense of hopelessness. The United States has gone through a lot in the past 250 years of its existence. Slavery finally came to and end. Abortion is still an issue. But this is still a place of hope to those who will use its potential. We wonder why people who have the privilege to be in this country turn on it and protest and riot in the streets claiming some injustice. We see unnecessary death when people place themselves between law enforcement officers and wrongdoers. We wonder who will be able to bring peace to these situations?
Malcolm Muggeridge was a famous and highly respected British journalist who for many years was an ardent atheist. His opinions and thoughts were coveted by American publishers, and he occasionally wrote the editorial page for Time Magazine. Toward the end of his illustrious career as the Dean of British broadcasters, he became a Christian. Then sometime after that he was a guest at a breakfast in Washington, D.C. where he shared his life story. When he had finished his testimony, he made a number of comments about world affairs, all of which were very negative. One of those present asked, “Dr. Muggeridge, you have been very pessimistic. Don't you have any reason for optimism?” He replied, “I could not be more optimistic than I am, because my hope is in Jesus Christ alone.” He allowed that remark to settle in for a few seconds, and then he added, “Just think if the apostolic church had pinned its hopes on the Roman Empire!”
The reason for our hope is not that we live in one of the most blessed countries the world has ever known, which we do. But our hope, just like the apostles under Roman rule, is not in government. As Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana, known for the clever way he says things, said, “If you trust government, you obviously failed history class.” He also said, “There’s a fine line between a politician and a scarecrow. Both scare the daylights out of you!” So with all of the negative events going on, do we still have a reason for hope? Malcolm Muggeridge said it best when he said, “I could not be more optimistic than I am, because my hope is in Jesus Christ alone.”
In Lamentations 3:21-22 it says, “This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.” These verses are part of a poem written by Jeremiah, who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Jeremiah was in deep sorrow and anguish over the loss of his people and his city. He felt hopeless and helpless.
Sometimes we may feel hopeless and helpless when we face problems or crises in our families. We may feel overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, or grief. We may feel discouraged by failures, mistakes, or regrets. Yet, in the midst of our despair, we can remember God’s love and mercy. We can realize that God has not abandoned us or our families. We can find hope in God’s unfailing compassion. God's love gives us hope and teaches us how to have a love that always hopes for the best in our relationships with others. Without hope, relationships can break down.
In the midst of his despair, Jeremiah remembered God’s love and mercy. He realized that God had not abandoned him or His people. He found hope in God’s unfailing compassion. As Christians we have been given the best reason to have hope even when some circumstances seem, to the human eye, to be hopeless. God's love gives us reason to have hope. And what He has done for us is...
3. The Source of Hope
Hebrews 6:17-19 tells Christians that there is a hope that is as sure as an anchor that holds a ship in place. It says, “Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”
The source of our hope is what God has done for us. We have that hope because of Jesus. We have that hope because God sent His only begotten Son into this world. We have that hope because Jesus lived a perfect life and became the perfect sacrifice on that cross. We have that hope because Jesus took the punishment we deserve. We have that hope because God is satisfied with that sacrifice.
We have that hope because Jesus was not conquered by death, but rose from the grave. And we have hope because Jesus will soon return and claim His own. We have the promise of God that there is something better planned. There is a heaven waiting, and we can be part of it, if we are in Christ. He has given us hope that comes from His love, and it compels us to love in return.
When we live in that hope, it infuses our whole person. It changes the way we think about others. It provides a Biblical worldview that points us to a hope that is greater than the world we live in. For Christians, hope is waiting expectantly for God to do what He has promised because He loves us.
How do we keep a good grip on to that hope? How can we cultivate a hopeful love for our family and friends? Hebrews 10:23-25, tells us: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
It is by coming together as we have done today that we can be reminded of God's promises and faithfulness and love. And that encourages our faith which is anchored in hope. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And then II Corinthians 4:18 reminds us: “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” We won't always see what God has in store for us, but we can know that we can trust Him to lead us through our current struggles.
Whenever we feel hopeless or helpless we should recall and meditate on God’s promises and faithfulness. And we can tell people who feel like Snoopy that there is hope for those who have a dog’s life. Regardless of why our life is the way it is today, where it goes from here is primarily up to us. We can wake up tomorrow to another dog’s day, or we can ask the Lord to help us make some changes, both inside and out.
God has given us hope as we trust in His many promises. In His Word He promises His presence, His protection, His provision, His peace, His power, His pardon, and His purpose. He loves us. And because He loves us, that love gives us hope!
CLOSE:
Another Peanuts cartoon pictured Lucy and Linus looking out the window at a steady downpour of rain. “Boy,” said Lucy, “look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?”
“It will never do that,” Linus replied confidently. “In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.”
“You've taken a great load off my mind,” said Lucy with a relieved smile.
To which Linus replied, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
When we know what God has said in His Word, it give us hope. And His Word tells us that when we turn from our sins, and when Jesus is Lord and Savior of our lives, one day our hope will become a reality, and we will be with Him forever.
