[Love] hopes all things. —1 Corinthians 13:7
Love anticipates and seeks the best in others. It never gives up. Is there someone you’ve given up on? Maybe it’s your husband. Maybe it’s your boss. Maybe it’s that grown son or daughter who’s hurt you so deeply. Maybe it’s that person you work with. Maybe it’s somebody you serve with at church, and you think that person will never be any different. Love keeps on hoping. God can change that person’s heart, and love prays for it and believes for it and works for it.
Just as long as God is God, He has grace. And as long as God has grace, human failure is never final. Maybe there’s someone in your church who has really fallen. Maybe they’ve even been disciplined for their error as an unrepentant member of the church—and that’s right to do. But in the midst of that discipline, in the midst of dealing with that unrepentant brother or sister, do you hold on to hope that God can (and do you pray that He will) change the heart of that person and bring him or her to repentance?
Make it Personal
Is there someone in your life that you’ve almost given up on? Pray that God would change their heart.