Faith, hope and love

I Thessalonians 1:3 Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

There were three things that encouraged Paul as he prayed for these believers in Thessalonica: their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Christ.  These encouraging aspects of their Christian walk were also the object of his prayers for them.  I was thinking about this – he was praying about things in their lives that were already manifesting themselves, so why was he praying about those same things?  These are the same three items listed in I Corinthians 13 as characteristics most important in the life of a believer: faith, hope and love.  Faith that creates works that please and honor God, hope that keeps one’s faith strong and forward-looking, and love that forms the basis of all a believer is or does.  Prayer was necessary because these three characteristics of a believer are also fragile and easily weakened or lost by a loss of vision or spiritual life.  Paul understood that principle so he prayed for them even while thanking God for those being displayed in their lives.