You cannot have faith without hope and love. They abide together. They are braided…permanently.

We often say we believe, that we trust God and have faith, yet we have given up hope in some small ways. We aren’t desperately hopeless, but we are hope anemic.

Or we excuse our behavior or attitude that is void of love by saying we are simply being truthful and faithfully following God. But we cannot be faithful without God’s love, just as we cannot be hopeless in our faith.

Faith gives us hope and love. Faith requires hope and love. We cannot pull one string out of the braid and claim the truthfulness of any of the three. They rely on each other. They remain only in their relationship. They are all intricately tied to God, and through them, so are we.