Tags
Faith, Hebrews 11:1, Hope, Inspiration, Joy, Love, Worship
In the last several posts we’ve been exploring joy and it’s relationship to our worship. Now I’m going to take a quick break from that to look at some other connections we can make with joy. James 1:2-3 shows a connection between joy and faith – our faith brings us joy. Romans 8:18-25 implies a connection between joy and hope – our hope enables us to have joy through undesirable times and circumstances. We looked in depth at each of those connections in past posts. Now look at this:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” NIV
So you see that there is a connection between faith and hope – faith is confidence in our hope. These three things: faith, hope and joy make a triangle.
Notice that faith and hope are on the bottom, they are the foundation of our joy. Without them we couldn’t have joy through any sort of trial. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering where my title is going to come into play, that is the challenge:
Worship Challenge #7
Our faith and hope produce joy within us, when this bubbles out and spills onto the people around us, it’s called love. Thus, joy is the inward affect and love is the outward.
So here is your challenge: How does your worship affect your love? You see, when we worship we are approaching the very throne of God, and we are reminding ourselves of every good thing He has done for us. This should strengthen your faith and renew your hope! So when you exit a time of worship, do you feel inspired to love? I hope considering these things inspire you to action – that is your real challenge.
Things to ponder:
When worshipping, is your faith strengthened or your hope renewed? Why or why not?
What is the first thing you think about after worshipping?
What inspires you to go above and beyond when it comes to loving those around you?