I’m not really sure how this happened, but somehow it’s 3:00 in the morning now and I’m sitting in my room, with my headphones on, listening to Justin Bieber. I can’t sleep, which really isn’t anything new. I’ve always been a bad sleeper.
but… needless to say, I’m feeling a little inspired haha, so I’m gonna attempt to share some thoughts
I read 1 Thessalonians 1 a few weeks ago but for whatever reason verse 3 has stuck with me.
“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor of love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” -1 Thes 1:3
Endurance inspired by hope in Jesus, I’m not totally sure why, but that concept has been on my mind for weeks. The idea of courage and bravery and strength being inspired and founded in the hope that is in Jesus. I know what it is to feel hopeless, and to feel weak, and I know what it’s like to put hope in things that fail and only leave me more disappointed and lost. I know there have been times when I’ve wanted to give up on everything. Hope is a word thats tossed around a lot, so its meaning can kind of seem like it’s been dulled, but we can’t survive without hope, and the only hope there is that promises to be alive and to see us through anything is the hope that is in Jesus. In Jesus there is always hope.
It’s easy to say that because of Jesus there is purpose in all of the pain and confusion in our lives, but what does that even mean? That truth isn’t comforting if we don’t know what it means or what the purpose is. If there is one thing that I’ve seen in my life and in the lives of the people around me, it’s that Jesus uses our failures and our weaknesses just as much as our successes and victories to draw people to Himself and to meet people where they are. Jesus uses our hardships and our trials to help us grow, but when we give our lives to Jesus our lives become a lot more about other people than they are about us. I don’t know why God does everything He does, but I do know that He loves people… and not just certain people, but all people. The world is full of people who are hurting; people who are lonely and exhausted and who are fighting just to survive their lives, and finding Jesus in the midst of my hurt and confusion and letting Jesus be who He is, in my life and through my life, is the only way I am beneficial to anyone. I don’t have anything to offer anyone, I depend, really in every way, on Jesus. I’m a mess of a person and everything I know about love comes from Jesus. Jesus loves so freely and without conditions. Spending time with Jesus and thinking about who He is and how great His love is makes me want to be more like Him and it makes me love Him more. Jesus is magnetic in that way. Kind of intoxicating. You lose yourself in Him. It’s beautiful.
Even when we give up on Jesus He never gives up on us, and even when we turn and walk away from Jesus He never turns or walk away from us.
Sometimes (a lot of the time) I take it for granted that Jesus is the way He is, but I’m really thankful. All I seem to do is fail at things, I’m selfish and I lose my faith so easily, and I’m thankful that Jesus’ love overshadows all of my failures, and that who He is is everything I need.
“We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into out hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” -Romans 5:2-4
The only hope there is that promises to be alive and to never leave us is Jesus. In Jesus there is always hope.