The Magnificent Five
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Faith, hope, love, joy and peace—the "magnificent five"—are inseparable from one another and reciprocally support each other. Try to imagine any one without the others! Dallas Willard
These magnificent five form the crosshatching of God’s presence in our lives. They are God’s gifts for the people we work with and encounter each day, testifying to the integration of His Spirit into who we are. The five reflect an ongoing relationship that delivers God’s grace through our submitted lives. When Paul praises the Thessalonians’ work of faith, their labor of love, and their patience of hope in following Christ, we see the dynamics of God’s spirit. In Romans he describes the integration of God’s will into our own when he prays that the God of hope would fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in the Father. Becoming wholly Christ-like is accomplished by opening every aspect of our lives to the work of the Holy Spirit. His magnificent gifts transform me from a prisoner of the world to a freedman whose life can reveal each day the depth and breadth of God’s love for me.
Scripture references
Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you're in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn't just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
We experience a great sense of the wonder, boldness, and overwhelming awe of God through our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
In Freedom of Simplicity Foster gently encourages us to see that our identity, our sense of comfort and security must be dependent on Christ and Christ alone if we are to honestly seek first the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not for each of us separately, but for us as a community.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
