Finding the Wordsಮಾದರಿ

Dear Lord Jesus Christ,

Your Word tells us that You are love. Your very character, motivations, and actions demonstrate Your love for Your people. As those who have been saved by Your love offering of Your life upon the cross, we simply want to THANK YOU and PRAISE YOU that You are a God of love.

And, as we come before You today, dear Lord, we acknowledge that You have commanded us to love one another, and that we would love one another with a love that is reminiscent of Your love for us. Indeed, You have loved us so that we would love others with Your love.

But Lord, we confess that there are people sometimes who are hard for us to love. We pray that You would work in our hearts to allow us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute Your church. May our response to opposition to the Gospel be love and evangelism, not bitterness and bunkers.

And Lord, we confess that even for those we most often want to love, our flesh is weak, and our selfishness or thoughtlessness or frailness simply get in the way of our deeper desire. We thank You for the forgiveness You offer when we fall short of loving our neighbors as You have loved us. We also thank You for the empowering grace gift of Your Holy Spirit that empowers us to produce Your fruit. May we keep in step with Your Spirit that You may love others through us this week.

It is in Your loving name we pray - AMEN