“… because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
“Father, Your Word says the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in my life by the way I love others, that if I say I love You, yet hate my brother, I am a liar. 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 am in the right mood, or even worse, only if someone has been loving me. Forgive me. Have mercy on me, Lord. Forgive my self-serving, selfish loving. Fill me with Your love and compassion.
I ask You to bring healing to damaged relationships in my life, those who I find difficult to love––and I especially pray for those who the Holy Spirit brings to mind this evening …
You have said love is patient and kind, it does not envy or boast, is not 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, neighbors, and classmates (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, and so 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 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––especially toward the helpless. 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 and glorified. In His Name I ask these things. Amen”
“We must not only pray, but we must pray with great urgency, with intentness and with repetition. We must not only pray, but we must pray again and again.”
E. M. Bounds
