“…And if I have faith that can move mountains,

But have not love,

I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:2b

I’m in awe of mountain-moving faith…the kind of faith that believes against all odds, without a glimmer of doubt, and beyond all obstacles that the mountain in front of you will be leveled.  The 11^th chapter of Hebrews gives account of the Bible’s “Faith Hall of Fame.”  By faith, Noah built the Ark and saved his family from the Great Flood.  By faith, Abraham left his home to live in tents in the Promised Land and became a father late in life producing a line of descendants “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore”…just as God had promised.  By faith, Joseph endured slavery and false imprisonment and rose to power in Egypt so that he could one day save his entire family, Abraham’s descendants, from severe famine.  By faith, Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born to spare his life.  Then Moses grew up to lead God’s people by faith out of slavery in Egypt by passing through the Red Sea on dry land!

The entire chapter of Hebrews 11 summarizes the lives of other great men and women of faith who conquered kingdoms, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and women whose dead were raised to life again.  They wandered in deserts, and mountains and lived in tents, caves, prisons and holes in the ground, yet through faith they persevered. The Bible is full of these amazing stories, which dramatize mountain-moving faith in action.

These stories of faith are so significant to God that He had them written into His Word for us to read about them today.  Yet I learn in 1 Corinthians 13:2b that…”if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am NOTHING.”

If God grants me the ability to “move mountains” in my life through faith in Him, it is worthless if I do not have His love flowing through me into the lives of others.  God’s love is always focused outward toward others.  The miraculous feats of faith, which we read about in the Bible, all had a grand purpose in God’s big picture and are evidence of His enduring love for His children.  Some lost their lives and died full of faith never realizing that their piece of the puzzle would some day help complete the masterpiece of God’s great love for us.

All of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 were ordinary people like you and me.  They became famous for faith because they allowed God to work through their lives.  They said “yes” to God’s requests and trusted Him to guide them and take care of the details.  They put others ahead of their own comfort and convenience and didn’t take the easy way out in their daily path.  They didn’t realized that their actions of faith would one day make headlines in the pages of the Bible.  As children of God, we are each writing our own faith story today.  God wants to use our story to help complete His masterpiece.  You never know when a seemingly simple act of faith might have eternal purpose.  Allow God to use you in His grand plan, but be sure that love is the motivation of your mountain-moving faith.

…Because without love, we are nothing.