And now these three remain… 1 Corinthians 13:13
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD. – Leviticus 19:28
You grin at me
My spine shivers with fear
Anticipation of your damage
I’m intoxicated with antiseptics
Commemorated by buzzing melodies
Dyed bullets fire
I’m injured, bleeding of your victory
As you dress my wound
This video was shown during service last Sunday. I found myself almost crying by the end of it because it struck a cord. Of course I was affected by the fact that I don’t see myself in a positive light. But what really struck me were how the strangers perceived each other. It made me wonder how I was being perceive by my peers, by my customers or better yet, my own loved ones. Do my negative thoughts, my negative perceptions of myself affect the people I come in contact with? Does my constant self-deprecation eventually cause other people to see me in that same light?
Furthermore, the message that Sunday was that to really start living a Christian life, one must change their thoughts. There should be this renewal of your mind. Because your mind is always going and can constantly be diverted, you have to find a way to keep your mind open. Simply put, “set your mind to flow with the spirit.” Now, I’ve never been a very positive person so this is very hard for me to do. But it’s a battle that I’m ready to take on because I do not want my thoughts to affect one’s opinion of me. The undoing of the years of low self-confidence just might take years! But again, if I am to draw closer in my relationship with God, in my relationship with other people, I have to change my thoughts and perception of me.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
If I speak with the tongues men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do no have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish thing. For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13
Corinthians 13 is one of the most quoted chapters in all of the Bible. Of course, we recognized it mostly from weddings and anniversaries. But to me, this chapter means more than a relationship between two people getting married or who are in love. To me, these are the rules or the standards in which I try to live by on a daily basis.
As a daily reminder, I wear three rings. One reads “faith,” one reads “hope” and one reads “love.” These rings were given to me by my older sister as a gift one Christmas. She wore the same ones and I, being the younger sister, wanted to be just like her so I asked for a set of my own. At that time, I didn’t really understand the significance of the rings and I”m pretty sure she knew I didn’t either. Eventually, the rings became a part of me, which I think she also knew would happen as well. I wear the rings everyday and rarely ever take them off.
What I didn’t know when I started wearing the rings was that God wants us to be strong in faith, steadfast in hope and unfailing in love. The words above and these three concepts are essentially describing what it means to be a Christian, to have a relationship with God. Over the years, as my faith deepened, I learned that there is a simplicity in these three things. Don’t get me wrong, it is not always that simple but it is that basic. God instills these gifts in us and wants us to use them in everything that we do.
Paul described these gifts as the greatest of all gifts that God has given us. In the previous chapter, Corinthians 12, Paul talks of the use of spiritual gifts and how God has enabled us all with faith, hope and love so that we can fight the good fight in His name. And that is what I am learning to do and attempting to do on a daily basis. This is why I titled my page, “My Faith, My Hope, My Love.” I want to share my journey and how these gifts assist me in my life and in my struggles. As I discover my special gifts in which God has given me and as I bring to light His purpose for me, I pray to continually be strengthened in my faith, adamantly hopeful and unshakable in His love.
My Faith, My Hope, My Love 