Hope. This one word can breathe life into a desperate situation and gives wings to a dream that is dying in front of your eyes. Can love hope all things in a Christian marriage? The Bible clearly says love hopes all things so it must be true, but how do we apply the principle when marriage is hard? Today we will see 2 simple steps to keep hope alive in any season of marriage.
Understand Hope – Love Hopes all Things in Marriage
Hope can mean different things to different people. For clarity, let’s define hope before we begin.
I’m not talking about a child’s hope. Children hope for things like snow the night before a test they are dreading. That is more like a wish, maybe even a desperate plea.
The kind of hope Paul is describing in 1 Corinthians 13 is not a wish or a plea, but a full-grown hope. It takes strong faith to live out love hopes all things in marriage when marriage is hard.
Love Hopes All Things Meaning
In the New Testament, the word hope (el-pid’-zo) means to expect or have confided, confidence.
This kind of hope is the kind that we have when we know God has promised. We know, we expect, we have confidence in His answer, even when we can’t see it yet.
Hope is the backbone of our faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 NASB)
When we are applying hope to a 1 Corinthians 13 love we see amazing things bloom all around us. But can we apply it to our marriage?
Who Said Love is Patient and Kind?
For our study today, we are looking at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. This is the Bible verse love hopes all things!
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act disrespectfully or unbecomingly; it does not seek it’s own, is not provoked to anger, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth;bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, enduring all things. Love never fails.“
By clicking the links in each word you can go back and review any of these verbs about love you may have missed.
Can Love Hope All Things in Marriage?
With our new understanding of Christian hope in place, we can apply, “love hopes all things” in our marriage! Living out this 1 Corinthians 13 love principle looks like this:
- Love has full confidence in someone
- Love keeps a hopeful attitude
2 Imperfect Ways to Live Out Love Hopes All Things in Marriage
Living out a 1 Corinthians 13 love in marriage, fueled by faith, requires a thirty thousand foot view of life. Hope is a piece of the bigger story of love, the Kingdom perspective of love showing God’s way of loving to the world around us.
Related Post: 16 Characteristics of a Godly Marriage
Love Has Full Confidence in Someone
First of all, looking from our higher vantage point at the story of the world that we get to be a part of, we see God’s love.
When I look at the way God loves it simply doesn’t make sense.
God always holds out hope for those who will believe in Him. Always.
This is clearly demonstrated in the fact that He has not come back yet, but is waiting until that last soul has turned to Him.
“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8-9 NASB)
When you hold out hope in your husbands, you are placing them fervently before God to change and grow him, in His way and in His time.
Love Keeps A Hopeful Attitude
What is a hopeful attitude?
It begins with our first step, keeping confidence in someone. God. My attitude is a reminder that God can change my husband, and so love can hope all things in marriage!
The someone for which we are holding out hope is NOT our husband. I’m sorry to say, that has been a hard lesson to learn myself.
Related post: Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness
No Hope in My Husband
My husband is human, prone to choose the path of least resistance. I have wasted years looking at him, hoping for change.
The more I look at him, struggling and suffering and seeming to not change, the more hopeless I feel about our marriage.
It is unfair of me to pin my hope to my husband. He can never be my everything. He can never live up to my unrealistic expectations of the perfect husband. Never.
Only God is perfect. Only God can keep hope alive in me.
3 Ways Love Hopes All Things in Marriage: have full confidence, keep a hopeful attitude and fix your eyes on Jesus!!!!! Share on XChange Looks Different On Him
The truth is, God is changing my husband, slowly over time. He is also changing your spouse! It’s just hard to see the change because we are too close to the pain and struggle.
On the days it’s hardest to hold onto those truths I re-read 1 Corinthians 13 to remind myself God is able. He was able then and He is able and willing today!
Do you believe that? The same Jesus who raised people from the dead is able to work miracles in your life and marriage!
Love Hopes All Things Examples
I wish I could say I always get this right, but that would be a lie. You would think that knowing it only takes two things to keep hope alive would be enough, but it just isn’t.
Staying fully confident in God requires a great deal of strength and faith. It requires us to stop our eyes and minds from fixating on all the problems all the time and instead fix them on The Lord.
“You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.” (Isaiah 26:3 NIV)
Certainly, that one verse is the key to both parts of this, even if you are looking at love hopes all things KJV (King James Version) style! Having confidence in God while keeping a hopeful attitude in the midst of trials is something that requires a mind fixed on God alone.
No, I would not be the best example of that. I believe Sarah would be a better example.
Related Post: 14 Characteristics of a Godly Wife That Will Save Your Marriage
Sarah and Abraham
Sarah and Abraham are a couple who take up most of the verses in the Hebrews 11 hall of faith. They showed faith enough to set out on a pilgrimage and begin the lineage of Jesus Christ Himself. Their story is beautiful and tragic. Abraham was just a man who lied and gave into fear. His struggles with those sins put Sarah in so much danger.
If not for God alone stepping in, she would have become a concubine to more than one king along their journey. Talk about a marriage with trust issues. Abraham failed and God stepped in and he failed again and God stepped in until something changed in the story.
If you are ever looking for Bible verses about marriage problems that God fixed, start reading in Genesis 12 and read nice and slowly. This Biblical couple got more things wrong than most and still, they are listed as having faith by God.
There is hope in that fact. Our mistakes do not disqualify us from serving the LORD!
Related Post: 38 Encouraging Bible Verses About Love and Marriage
Hope in The Face of Repeated Failures
Maybe it was just the time that Sarah lived in, but I like to think it is because she had such faith in God that she was a godly wife. Sarah had every right to be angry and brood over Abraham’s mistakes.
- Lied about her to a king.
- Almost got her raped.
- Lied about her to another king.
- Almost got her taken into a haram.
- Married her maid to have a child.
- Allowed that same maid to be unkind to her for being barren.
- Dragging her all across the desert, far from her family for 25 years.
- Attempting to sacrifice her only son…
Yep, Sarah had every right to give up hope in her marriage. Did she? We see her standing side by side with Abraham in Hebrews and one of few women or wives who made it into the book. How did she hold out hope after all those mistakes – many of which were repeated?
Sarah had hope in God. She had confidence in Him and kept her attitude reflecting that hope rather than reflecting the failures she saw.
Related Post: A Character Study of Sarah -How To Unleash the Power of Submission in Marriage
A Love That Hopes All Things in Marriage Is More…
These last four verbs we are studying in 1 Corinthians 13 build on each other.
Love bears all things, and so it can believe all things. As love bears all things and believes all things, love hopes all things. And as love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, love can endure all things. In this way, love never fails.
Those are some powerful verbs! How can love do all of that? Love must remember the answer to a question. What is marriage in the Bible?
Related Post: 7 Benefits of Submission in Marriage
What is Marriage in The Bible?
In the Bible, marriage is a sacred covenant between one man and one woman. A covenant, a holy promise, is made between two people and God alone. This holy promise is embarked up with joy and hope as is right. The journey is one that can draw the two nearer to each other but ultimately draws them nearer to God.
All throughout Scripture, the relationship between bride and groom is compared to the relationship between God and Believers. When married life gets hard, it is easy to focus on the problems at hand and forget that we are image-bearers. We forget that the Lord world is looking on, longing for something real.
Is it tough to hope all things when marriage is hard? Yes. It is really tough. Remember though, at the toughest moments, that you can hope all things in God and when you do, you set your mind to reflect Him well to the lost all around you.
Related Post: 10 Biblical Reasons for Marriage That Still Apply Today
Are You Struggling With Love Hopes All Things in Your Marriage?
Can we live out this principle of 1 Corinthians 13 love – love hopes all things in marriage? It seems so simple to follow the plan: 1. have full confidence in someone – God. 2. Keep a hopeful attitude because of that confidence.
But without the 3rd step, it is impossible. Keep your eyes and mind fixed on God no matter how hard life gets.
That last part is the real key to a love that can hope all things. The 3 steps bear repeating:
- Have full confidence in God.
- Keep a hopeful attitude.
- Fix your eyes on God no matter what happens.
It is a marriage challenge that requires faith and practice, but I know you can do it!
Do You Need To Go Deeper?
This is part of the 9-week Marriage Bible Study –Finding Hope & Joy in Marriage. Through this course, we will explore the 9 Biblical foundations of having a successful marriage in God’s way.
This class will include:
- 10 video lessons
- You can watch live or when you have time
- 9 weeks of personal study
- 5 days each week that should take 10-15 minutes
- A private Facebook Group to discuss the homework and talk through the weekly challenges
- 45 Days of Prayer prompts
in HIM,
Tiffany of Hope Joy in Christ inspires Christian Women to grow in faith, live out Biblical Marriage Principles and raise Godly Children. Join the Wives Only Facebook Group here or keep up with her through Pinterest.
If you enjoyed this, you will love these posts:
- How to Have Hope While Waiting on God
- Hope When Life Is Hard and You Are Hard Pressed on Every Side
- How to Keep Hope Alive as a Christian
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It’s amazing to know how much God loves us and how this can be reflected in our marriages. I love what you added here “God always holds out hope for those who will believe in Him and turn away from their sin.” <3
Yes Stephanie! God loves us so much!
Love hopes all things, and that can be hard in difficult marriages. But if our hope is in God, He is the God of the impossible and is able to do above anything we could ask or think.
So much truth here susan!
What hope God gives us! We can confident in what God tells us because He has been faithful throughout the pages of the Bible. Hope is God.
Love that Julie! Thanks
I love this, Tiffany! God has shown us hope in our marriage, and for that, I am so thankful! I’d love to be part of your marriage challenge, so Marriage Challenge Accepted!
Praying now. I have a FB Group where we are praying through these things. You are welcome to join us for a daily prayer prompt! https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReclaimingHopeJoyMarriage/