The Bible has a lot to say about faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Faith can move both mountains and fig trees (Matthew 17:20; 21:21). Faith in prayer is both vital and powerful (Matthew 21:22; James 5:15). But in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul makes it clear that there is something that is needed alongside faith, without which, faith is null and void.
We can have faith that can move mountains, that achieves things, gets results and is impressive to those around us. But without love, this means nothing. In fact, Paul says that without love 'I am nothing'. Lack of love nullifies all the other things we think are important or impressive. Having come from an environment in my past that emphasised faith in a big way, but had catastrophic gaps in the practice of love, this scripture really speaks to me.
This verse is challenging because I think a lot of the time it is easier to focus on faith than to walk out love. This may be because things that we have faith for could benefit us in some way and therefore we are more motivated to believe. It also could be because loving people is difficult, messy and usually unspectacular. But without love, all that faith can achieve is pointless, because without love, we aren't representing the God who we claim to have faith in. What a sobering challenge to our priorities in our daily walk with God and others.
I created the background on this page using a brick wall stencil and different shades of pink paint. I layered another stencil with broken lines using white paint over the top and sponged a little white paint over some of the bricks to create a distressed look. The verse was stamped using a combination of Walk by Faith, Teeny Alpha, and Seek Him stamp sets along with some alpha stickers.
I pray that God would continually enable us to demonstrate his love with those around us as we walk by faith in him.
x Amy x
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