Chapter Fourteen
LOVE ALWAYS TRUSTS

Trust
1 a: assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something b: one in which confidence is placed
5 : a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or as a condition of some relationship

Matthew 27:43 (Amplified)
He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now if He cares for Him and will have Him, for He said, I am the Son of God.
(one of the thieves on the cross to the crowd)

Jesus trusted God with everything. Jesus trusted God’s vision to send Him to earth so that His death would bring about redemption. We have to remember, when Jesus came to earth, He came in the physical body of a man. He was not a god in the sense of Him having or being able to do anything we can’t (except through His faith in God). If that was the case, Him being an example or being put in circumstances that we might go through would be irrelevant, His power as god would protect Him.
But He didn’t, He came in the body of a man and because of His trust in God; He had the faith and power to do the things He did, to do the miracles He did. That is why God tells us to come to Him as little children (And said, truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]... (Matthew 18:3).

Matthew 19:14 (Amplified)
But He said, Leave the children alone! Allow the little ones to come to Me, and do not forbid or restrain or hinder them, for of such [as these] is the kingdom of heaven composed.)

Children trust and believe their parents to tell them the truth and protect them. God wants us to know that He is the Truth and He will protect us. I like to think about people in isolated countries who are poverty stricken and their lands are full of sickness and death. Why do you think there are so many reports of miracles in those areas? Because when they hear the Word, they believe! They trust it to be true and trust in God to do what His Word says. They trust in the hope that all the horrors they see they can be redeemed from. They don’t have anyone telling them “it didn’t work for them”, “God is teaching them something”, or “that isn’t for today”. They hear the Word and they believe it, trust it and they receive it.


Luke 17:6 (Amplified)
And the Lord answered, If you had faith (trust and confidence in God) even [so small] like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Mark 11:22-24 (Amplified)
And Jesus, replying, said to them, Have faith in God [constantly].
Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain (circumstance), Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].

We have to trust and know that what the Bible says is true, which in turn means we have to believe what Jesus said is true.
To find salvation you have to trust that believing in Jesus is the only way. Why would it not be true with everything else that the Word says?


Psalm 91:14 (Amplified)
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness--trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].

Chapter Fifteen
LOVE ALWAYS HOPES

Hope …
1: to cherish a desire with anticipation
2 archaic: trust
transitive verb
1: to desire with expectation of obtainment
2: to expect with confidence: trust

God expects with confidence His victory over the devil. Why? Because it has already happened! God knew the outcome before it even played out. But He let the Jews know that hope was coming. He sent prophets and prophecies to give His people hope that He had not forgotten them. That God was there for them and only wanted/wants the best for those who love Him, who choose to follow Him and let Him be all we need. He never gives up on us. No matter how old or how far off the path we may be/get His hope is in our salvation.

1 Peter 1:3 (Amplified)
Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…

We can look at it this way, Jesus is our hope! If we do not have Jesus, what are we hoping for? We are living for the moment, trying to squeeze everything out of it we can. We are scared of death and not existing anymore. But when we have the hope of Jesus we know that there is something beyond now. We know that there is something to look forward to besides what we have here. We have a future. The devil wants us to only focus on the here and now and obtain what we can while we are here and that we cannot let anyone get in our way. Satan has limited time and he knows it. But with Jesus we can rest in the knowledge that life doesn’t stop with our physical death but continues on for eternity. And with Hope (earnest expectation) we know that the Word is Truth and what the Lord has promised us we can have!
Jesus is our example. We should be acting like Him. When we are doing what God wants us to do, the enemy will send a storm to try and hinder us from our assignment. Stand firm; do not let the devil have his way. We are soldiers in the army of the Lord...so fight!

Psalm 71:5
For You are my hope; O Lord God, You are my trust from my youth and the source of my confidence.