¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
                                                                        -1 Corinthians 13:13
 
Faith, hope, and love. These three are woven all throughout the New Testament and especially in Paul’s writings as the crown jewels of what Christ-following motivation look like.
 
Can you imagine what your life would look like if every word, every action, every email, every text, every trip to the grocery store, every interaction with every sales clerk…if every single thing you did was motivated by faith, hope, and love?
 
What if faith hope and love drove the bus of your life instead of fear, shame, guilt, obligation, ambition, selfishness, frustration, disappointment, or duty? Can you imagine how much freer you’d be, more alive, more grounded, more centered, and more joyful?
 
One day it shall be so.  In the meantime we are works in progress towards this majestic goal—and there is work that we can do to help get us there. Pray that all that you do might be driven by faith, hope and love. Ask for the Spirit to free you from lesser motivations and to shape the deep inner life around this strong three-stranded cord. Love is the greatest, but a life marked and shaped by all three would be glorious.
 
On a Friday, a simple response and application to this passage: ask God to help everything you do today to be motivated by faith, hope, and love. Be aware of how other motivations or interests might threaten to sneak in and hijack your actions.  Ask to be awake to how a life driven by faith, hope, and love might look different, both on the inside and on the outside.
 
A life lived on the way with Jesus is going to be marked by these three characteristics and love most of all. May we all be full to the brim with the Spirit, that we might live this kind of life.