Daily Prayer Guide - Sunday March 29 - Praying to the God who is Love

John 15:9-13

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

1 John 4:7-8, 16-18

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love;

It's the only thing that there's just too little of”

Love is so much more than an emotion or pleasant sentiment.  Love is the central and essential attribute of God’s very being.  God is the summation of all love and all that it means to love.  Love comes from God himself and it conditions all his other attributes.  He is faithful because he loves.  He is wise and good because he loves.  His knowledge and strength are demonstrations of his love.  His sovereignty is marked by his love for his people.  All that God is and all that he does is overshadowed by his great love for all his creation, like the multicolored rainbow that stretched over all creation as his promise after the flood.  If God were somehow removed from this world, there would be no hint of love anywhere left to be found.   

Our world needs love.  People need to see God’s love.  Not as nice people getting nicer by doing nice things, but instead through the rich and multifaceted, deep and sacrificial kind of love that not only changes the world but sets the world right again. 

In this world, we are like Jesus.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.  Because we know the love of God that has not only redeemed our soul, but captivated our lives, we can love to the full extent of God’s love that is within us by the faith that we have in him.  Love seeks the good for all people.  Love is faithful to the eternal end.  Love seeks to do the right thing in the humility of wisdom.  Love looks to God for insight and understanding.  Love flourishes under the sovereignty of God and moves and acts in the unquenchable power of God himself.

As you pray, reflect on how God has demonstrated his great love to you…

·      Thank God for loving you, express to him what that means for you to be the recipient of his love.

·      Ask God to use you to be his hands and feet of love to the world around you.

·      Ask God to cause his people to demonstrate his love in all the extraordinary ways he would desire.

·      Ask that his love would bring him great glory and you great joy.

Father,  your love demonstrates the completeness of who you are.  The gentleness, compassion and kindness of your love lead me to repentance of the times I have not been willing to demonstrate the same kind of love.  Thank you for your grace that leads me back into your love.  By faith, I long to live so the world would see and respond to your great love.  Amen.