A Prayer for Love
By Emma Danzey
1 John 4:7-8 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
God has called us to love Him and to love others. In 1 John 4:7-8, He so kindly reminds us that we are to love each other because love is from Him, and when we love, we show that we have been saved by Jesus and know Him. This is way easier said than done when God does not answer our prayers how we would like, when people in our communities are challenging and negative, or when we just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. However, the Lord has invited us to love others. We have the opportunity of a lifetime to live lives out of the love of Jesus by His Holy Spirit.
This song from 1960s “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love,” written by Peter Scholtes, expresses how the world looking on will know that we are believers in Jesus by the way that we love. In a world full of divisions, hate, and chaos, we have the opportunity to share love, peace, and unity. This does not mean that we do not stand by the hard truths found in the Bible, but we live lives and share God’s ways with others from places of compassion and kindness.
Let's Pray:
Dear Lord,
You are Love. Everyone who lives in love lives in You. Help me to walk in love today and each day. Give me Your power to choose to walk obedient to this command. When others are challenging to want to love, give me the grace and the endurance to love them well anyway, as You have loved me. Thank You for Your great love to die on the cross for my sin and raise Yourself to life again. I am overwhelmed by Your great compassion.
Jesus, would you help me to remember that You loved the world and gave up Your life so that anyone who believes in You will not perish, but have eternal life? (John 3:16) You did not send Your son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:17) Where I desire to condemn others and believe that they are too far gone to love and witness too, rearrange my thoughts and reshape my heart. Where I want to be the judge, help me to allow You to speak the truth through Your word and change hearts by Your Spirit. Remind me of the love You have poured out on me to be called a child of You.
God, You say in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 that love is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud. It does not dishonor others, it isn’t self-seeking, it isn’t easily angered, and it does not keep a record of wrongs. This is a tall order for a sinner like me. Help me to rely on Your Spirit to live out this kind of love in my life. Grant me the ability to show supernatural love in situations that come my way. May the ways that I speak and live point to Your gospel truth.
Ephesians 4:14-15 says, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
Lord, help me not to stay a baby in the faith. Help me not to waiver because of the opinions around me. Part of love is sharing truth. You say that telling truth in love is a sign of a mature believer in Christ. Jesus, help me to love others well. Give me Your strength to not worry about people pleasing but to be truly loving by sharing Your Word with others. In a world that thinks love is acceptance and tolerance, show me how to be authentic and genuine in love and in sharing Your truth in a kind way.
Thank You God for loving me. Help me to live from a place of love so that others may know that You’re the Savior of the world who loves them and gave Yourself for them, as You did for me. Amen.
Photo credit: ©SalemDesign/BethanyPyle
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