Teach me to love
Father, You who are the author of love, teach me Your way. I know Father that so often I do not love as You have called me to love. I love when it is convenient, when I’m in the right mood, or even worse, only if someone has been loving to me. Forgive me. Have mercy on me Lord. Forgive my self-serving, selfish loving. Fill me with Your love and compassion.
You have said that love is patient and kind, it does not envy or boast, it isn’t arrogant or rude, selfish or easily provoked. It does not keep record of wrong or rejoice in unrighteousness. Father, give me this kind of love for those around me! May my love for my family members, my co-workers and neighbors– my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus – truly bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things. Keep my love from failing. May I practice lavish love with them, so that I may live-out Your love in the world that has yet to know You.
May extravagant love be evident in my relationships with my brothers and sisters in Jesus. Keep me from having any part in that which would cause division in the body of Christ. Instead, may my life be rooted and established in love. Father, Your Word says that it is by the way that I love those in my community of faith that the world will know that I belong to You. Give me this kind of love I pray! As You have lavishly loved me, may I in turn love others and encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus on toward even greater love and good deeds. May I be found worthy of bearing the Name of Christ, and determined to live-out the debt of love I owe so that Jesus may be exalted, His name glorified and the transforming power of His love made evident in my life. In His name I ask these things. Amen.
Read: 1 John 4:16; Matthew 5:38-48;
1 Corinthians 13:4-8; 12:25-27;
John 13:34-35; Ephesians 3:17;
1 John 3:1; Hebrews 10:24;
Romans 13:8-10
Written by: Reverend Charles King