God's Love Languages

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 4:1, slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.’

Pause and repeat

‘God’s voice can be muted by our wounded preconceptions about who He really is, how He speaks, and what we think He will say. But when we approach Him again and again with some deep need, His eyes are not angry, bored, or cold, assessing the merits of our request and the technique of our prayer. Whenever we come to God with an open wound of longing, we come to Abba, Father who loves us deeply. “Cast all your anxiety on him,” says the apostle Peter simply, “because he cares for you”’ *

Pause to read the passage 1 Pet. 5:7–11

Dr. Gary Chapman identifies five ‘love languages’ by which people tend to express and exchange affection: touch, gifts, words, deeds, and time. Do I have a particular love language in my relationship with God? What are the experiences or circumstances in which His love tends to become especially real to me?

Pause and reflect

Abba, Father, I cast the great burden of my anxiety on You, because You are stronger than me and You care for me deeply. I name before You now the particular burdens, large and small, which seem to be weighing me down today.

Pause and pray

As I bring this time with God to a close, I return to Psalm 131 and, once again, pray a prayer of trust:

My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.

But I have calmed and quietened myself,

I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and for evermore.

Amen.

*Pete Greig, God on Mute, David C Cook, (Colorado Springs, 2020), p50-51