Full of Love, Full of Hope

If you’ve been around for a little while you know I’m not a big New Year’s Resolution/Goal setter. Nor have I ever been a been a big “Word of the Year” person in the past. I wrote this post, Full of Grace, Full of Truth, at the end of 2019 having no idea what lay ahead in 2020. None of us did. Only God knew. As I reread that post, I’m not sure I got there . . . way too often, I administered a healthy dose of truth without any grace . . . but I’m so thankful for a savior who is full of grace . . . I’m so thankful for another opportunity in 2021.

“Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies; they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

I can be the holiest, know the bible backwards and forwards, have all the faith in in the world, give everything I have . . . but if I treat others badly, if I don’t have love, it’s all for nothing. I’m nothing more than a “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” . . . translation? To be really blunt, I’m an obnoxious, loud Christian screaming at others to have more faith . . . to be better . . . to be holier . . . bottom line, to be more more like me (definitely should not be your end goal) . . . You know how many people that brings to Jesus? Not many.

It’s. Not. About. Me. It is about Jesus.

That’s the lesson I want to hold onto from 2020, and the truth I want to carry forward into 2021. Love isn’t just a flowery emotion that feels good. That comes and goes as it pleases. It’s an action . . . it’s work . . . it’s actively and intentionally putting others first . . . it’s serving . . . it’s kindness . . . it’s gentleness and humbleness . . . as always, I am a work in progress, but I pray when I look back over this year, that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, I see more of God and less of myself with each passing day. That I see the evidence of true love in my own life.

So 2021 . . . still . . . Full of Grace, Full of Truth . . . but also . . . Full of Love, Full of Hope.

Copyright 2020, Courtney G Davis, All Rights Reserved 

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