Prayer to help us love each other
By Lynette Kittle
Bible Reading:
“We love him because he loved us first” – 1 John 4:19
Read or listen to the following:
Love Notch
Sadly, these days it doesn’t seem like the world is realising or saying things like, “Look, their Christians really love each other. They must be true disciples of Jesus.” As people who believe in Jesus, if we have not heard this, we probably need to strengthen our affection into some notches of each other. 1 John 4:16 says, “And we know and rely on the love that God has for us: God is love.
Is love possible without God?
Is it possible that we have God’s love within us and not love others? As Christians, we are called to love each other. It is a sign for the world that we belong to him and that we are His disciples by our love for one another.
However, in our current culture, some Christians seem to forget that loving others is perhaps the most authentic evidence of the heart of loving God. If we do not love others, it reveals the true state of our hearts, our relationships, or lack of relationships with God. “He does not know God because he is love” (1 John 4:8).
Love started with God
As believers in Jesus Christ, our most important relationship begins with love, and with our salvation, when God first loved us and reached out to us with His love. Romans 5:8 explains, “But God shows His own love for us. We were still sinners, but Christ died for us.” John 3:16 explains, “Because he loved the world that God gave him one and one son, everyone who believed in him loved that he would not perish but had eternal life.” In salvation we receive God’s love and God’s call to love each other, including our spouses, our neighbors and even our enemies. God’s instructions to love others are enthusiastic.
Love stretches us
As in Mark 12:31, God calls us to love our neighbors. That includes loving our spouses, children, parents, colleagues, our community, our country and all over the world.
To reach most of us further, God called us to love our enemies, hurt us in countless ways, rejected us, influenced others, rejected us, deceived us, deceived us, deceived us from promotions and profits, betrayed us on various levels, including relationships, confidence and more.
Still, God hates us and does not allow us any spiritual support to withhold love from those who persecute us.
In these situations, we want to think about what love actually consists of and how it looks. When it seems right, is it really love, do we feel better and we want to offer it, or is it really love when we choose to offer it despite our feelings, does it really love, don’t we give us warm and cozy feelings? We don’t want to offer it, but we love God.
Let’s pray:
Dear Father, we are deeply grateful to you for first gaining and expanding your love. Thank you for teaching us how to love us how to love and how to love each other. Everything we know about love comes from you because you are love. Today, and every day to come, we ask that we strengthen us to be comfortable with us or to reach out even more than what is comfortable with our loved ones. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Photo Credit: ©getTyimages/alex_skp
Lynette Kittle is married to four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships and life. Her writings have been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, Kirkcameron.com, ungrind.org, startmarriageright.com and more. She holds a Masters degree in Communications from Regent University and is an associate producer at Soul Check TV.
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