“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13

The Apostle Paul mentions three fundamental areas that have deep meaning. He speaks of faith, hope, and love. Faith is for today; while hope is for tomorrow. Hope is the vision, the projection that we have. Since there are many who mistake faith for hope, people often say, “I have faith that the Lord will heal me some day, “or” I have faith that someday my home will change,” or “I have faith that one day the financial situation will be better.” That is hope. Faith is not for the future, but for the present. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “‘Have faith in God, I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him” (Matthew 11:22-23).

Many prayers are lost because of our doubt. Faith always looks at what God has said, and believes it. When you say a prayer according to His Word, the miracle has already happened, even though the circumstances keep saying the opposite. You must determine to be someone who moves in the dimension of faith. Hope is closely linked to faith. We can see hope through our spiritual eyes. We can see a better tomorrow, but the only way to bring that tomorrow into the present is through the substance of our faith in God and His Word.

Some time ago my uncle’s wife came to see me. When I saw her walking on crutches, I asked her what had happened. She had had an accident that made her lose her knee cartilage; and because of this, it would never function properly again. I shared the Word and encouraged her in her faith. Then I told her to visualize herself walking, because only she could paint pictures of healing in her own mind, where she could see herself completely healed. Everything we can clearly see with the eyes of faith will soon become a reality in our lives. Once she had the correct image in her mind, I challenged her to bend the knee in an act of faith. In a matter of seconds, the miracle had taken place. She was now jumping and running as perfectly as she had done in the past. When she went back for a routine checkup, doctors and nurses were also surprised at the miracle the Lord had performed.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
In the time of Charles Spurgeon, a newspaper article came out that shook him to his core. It spoke of a woman full of love, of admirable patience and tolerance.

This is what he said, “The other day, I read a story in the paper, which certainly did surprise me. Undoubtedly, it is an instance of wonderful patience and forbearance on the part of a loving woman. I do not think that I have heard or read the like of it in all my days, and I should think that such action as hers never has been excelled. The wretch of whom I speak must have been the meanest man who ever lived, and died without being hanged, and the woman must have been one of the most wonderful of women ever seen upon the face of the earth. According to the account I read, the man had not been long married, but he did not prosper in his profession, and feeling that he had talent and ability, he came to London by his wife’s permission, and with her consent, that he might make his way in the world. He did make his way, and became afterwards a portrait painter of considerable eminence, so that he obtained admission into fashionable society, and lived upon the fat of the land. He told his wife, when he wrote to her once, that if she came she might be a burden to him, so he never fetched her up to London; indeed, he never but on that one occasion communicated with her, and never sent her even a solitary sixpence. That state of things lasted for forty years, and the wife remained true and faithful to him notwithstanding all the heartbreak caused by his cruel conduct. In process of time, he spent all his money, and reduced himself to beggary. Besides that, he was full of disease, yet he was mean enough to crawl to the door of the woman he had neglected all those years, and, strange as it may seem, she opened it with delight, and welcomed him back into her heart. She put him in her bedroom, she carefully nursed and cared for him, and she wore her own life away by sitting at his bedside till he died. Was it not splendid on her part? What monument ought not to be raised to such a loving woman as that? But I merely tell you this story in order to say that this woman’s forgiveness of her unworthy husband is but a faint picture of the great love of God towards ungodly men. He feeds them, and supplies their every need; they are always dependent upon him, they could not live an instant without his permission. Yet some whom I know have never communicated with their God for forty years.”

TODAY’S DECLARATION
“I received God’s promise, I believed it in my heart, I declared it in faith, and the miracle has happened.”

Today’s post is an excerpt from Pastor Cesar Castellanos’ book, Declarations of Power for 365 Days of the Year: Volume Four.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING

• Old Testament: Jeremiah 49; Song of Songs 3
• New Testament: John 6:1-15; 1 Peter 2:18-25