July – A Call to Love
John 13:34-35,
Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment: They are to love others as He
loved them.
Loving Yahweh
Maccaddeshcem, our Sanctifier God (Exodus 31:13), we come to you this month united again
in prayer. As you perfect our Faith,
lead us to Love as we’ve been commanded.
Father we know that Jesus loved us enough to die for us even while we
were Your enemies (Romans 5:10). We know
that those who do not love, do not know God – because God is Love (1 John 4:8).
Loving You comes so easy for us, God.
You created us. You provide for
us. You care for us. You comfort us. Loving You is what we were created to
do. Like a tool being used for its
intended purpose, loving and worshipping our God was the reason for our creation. Our struggle comes, Holy God, when we try to
open our hearts to love those around us.
God, we have a hard time always loving our families like we should. We ask for your forgiveness, Father, when our
sins get in the way of loving the ones close to us. We ask for Your help in strengthening our
love for those closest to us.
Your Word tells us that Jesus gave the disciples “a new commandment”. Jesus commanded us to love others as He loved
others. Help us to be mindful that Jesus
washed the feet of those He loved, and then He sacrificed His life willingly
for those He loved. Help us always
remember that “those He loved” included those who had just cried out for His
crucifixion. The Greek word used in the
1 John text for Love is ἀγαπᾶτε, and Father, we see that same word used in various other places
in Your word. It’s a variation of the “unconditional
Love”, agape. Help us to truly
understand what You commanded and to realize that not only is it the exact same
form of the word that Paul used when he instructed husbands to love their wives
(Ephesians 5:25, Colossians 3:19) and Peter used when he told his readers that
they loved Jesus even though they’d never seen him (1 Peter 1:8), but it’s the exact
same form word used by Jesus when he commanded us to Love our enemies (Matthew
5:44, Luke 6:35).
We ask for help in understanding Your Word and Your Will. It’s hard sometimes to get past our grudges and
hurts and to forgive others. But more
than forgiving, we need to understand that You’ve commanded us to love, Father,
and not just the brotherly Phileo love (φίλος) of friendship and
well-wishing. God, we need to know that
we are commanded to love others, including those in our families, close
friends, those who we barely know, those who we don’t know at all, and even
those who have greatly wronged us, with the same love that husbands are
commanded to have for their wives, and that Jesus has for all of mankind. Forgiving God, we should be asking ourselves
the question, “What if I love Jesus only as much as I love the person I hate
the most?” We know we’re not supposed to
hate, but more than that we’re commanded to love as Jesus loved. We ask that you give us the strength through
the Holy Spirit, to help us to love as Jesus loved. Mold our hearts, so that even while our
enemies shout “crucify him” in our faces, we still love them as we love our
husbands or wives, willing to give our lives for them. When we get to that point, the world will see
that our hearts truly belong to Christ.
We pray that You help us to be steadfast and faithful in our Love. We need to be vigilant in our obedience to
love others, because right after Peter told Jesus he had this Love for Him
(John 13:37), he denied Jesus three times just as Jesus predicted he would
(John 13:38). Continually fill us with
Your love, and allow it to spill over out of us onto the rest of the world. Protect us from the sins that try to block
that love, and help us grow enough in our faith to be able to say “Get thee
behind me, Satan!”
We continually pray in Jesus’ name,
Amen
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