Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer expresses a deep and beautiful hunger to live inside the reality that the blood of Jesus has already opened for you. Hebrews 10:19 says we have confidence to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, through the veil, and Hebrews 9:13 and 14 says that blood cleanses the conscience from dead works so we can serve the living God. That confidence does not come from the strength of your love for God, but from the greatness of His love for you in sending His Son to bear your sin.
When His love is at work in you, it brings boldness. Scripture says herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. As Christ is loving, so His life in you will be marked by love. There is no fear in that love, because fear has to do with judgment, and perfect love casts out fear. You can draw near with assurance not because you have earned it, but because you are in Christ and He is your sympathetic High Priest who lives to intercede for you. You have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
We love Him because He first loved us. His love awakens a response in the heart. When you truly see how He has loved you, cleansed you, and received you as His own, your heart answers back with love and thankfulness. That is the foundation for everything else you prayed about. The Christian life is built on being rooted and grounded in love, drawing nourishment from it as a plant draws life from its roots, and then growing to comprehend more of the breadth and length and depth and height of that love, a love that endured to the cross and endures forever. It is a giving love, an agape love, not a love that takes or bargains, but the divine love God pours into our hearts. You cannot buy it and you cannot quench it. You simply receive it.
That is why the call to return to your first love is so important. When that simple devotion to Christ grows cold, the remedy is to remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the first works again, returning to close fellowship with Him. James 4:8 promises that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Abiding in Him is like a branch abiding in the vine. The branch does not strain to produce fruit, it receives the life of the vine and fruit follows naturally. In the same way, as you walk in the Spirit and stay nourished by His love, love and joy and faithful service will flow.
From that foundation comes the walk of love you mentioned. Because you have been so loved and so forgiven, you are called to walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us. Forgiveness follows the same pattern. God is your example. Love is shown not only in words but in deeds and in truth, in yielding to one another, in giving of yourself, in tending faithfully the garden and vineyard God has entrusted to you, whether that is your home, your work, or your daily chores. God desires clarity and order, not confusion, and He delights to give wisdom and revelation so you can understand His Word, be diligent in what He has given you to do, and enjoy fellowship with Him and with others. That simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ keeps the heart centered.
I join you in praying that the Holy Spirit, who was promised and poured out after Jesus died, rose, and ascended to pour out His inheritance, will fill you afresh, teach you, and keep you. May He grant you nearness to God, renewal of first love, wisdom for pressing needs, grace for daily duties, and genuine fellowship with believers and a witness to those who do not yet know Him. And may the Lord guard you from temptation and evil, from stumbling blocks and deception and every form of wrongdoing, and keep you in the protection and ministry He promises to His people, as you continue to come freely to His throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
When His love is at work in you, it brings boldness. Scripture says herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. As Christ is loving, so His life in you will be marked by love. There is no fear in that love, because fear has to do with judgment, and perfect love casts out fear. You can draw near with assurance not because you have earned it, but because you are in Christ and He is your sympathetic High Priest who lives to intercede for you. You have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
We love Him because He first loved us. His love awakens a response in the heart. When you truly see how He has loved you, cleansed you, and received you as His own, your heart answers back with love and thankfulness. That is the foundation for everything else you prayed about. The Christian life is built on being rooted and grounded in love, drawing nourishment from it as a plant draws life from its roots, and then growing to comprehend more of the breadth and length and depth and height of that love, a love that endured to the cross and endures forever. It is a giving love, an agape love, not a love that takes or bargains, but the divine love God pours into our hearts. You cannot buy it and you cannot quench it. You simply receive it.
That is why the call to return to your first love is so important. When that simple devotion to Christ grows cold, the remedy is to remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the first works again, returning to close fellowship with Him. James 4:8 promises that if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. Abiding in Him is like a branch abiding in the vine. The branch does not strain to produce fruit, it receives the life of the vine and fruit follows naturally. In the same way, as you walk in the Spirit and stay nourished by His love, love and joy and faithful service will flow.
From that foundation comes the walk of love you mentioned. Because you have been so loved and so forgiven, you are called to walk in love as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us. Forgiveness follows the same pattern. God is your example. Love is shown not only in words but in deeds and in truth, in yielding to one another, in giving of yourself, in tending faithfully the garden and vineyard God has entrusted to you, whether that is your home, your work, or your daily chores. God desires clarity and order, not confusion, and He delights to give wisdom and revelation so you can understand His Word, be diligent in what He has given you to do, and enjoy fellowship with Him and with others. That simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ keeps the heart centered.
I join you in praying that the Holy Spirit, who was promised and poured out after Jesus died, rose, and ascended to pour out His inheritance, will fill you afresh, teach you, and keep you. May He grant you nearness to God, renewal of first love, wisdom for pressing needs, grace for daily duties, and genuine fellowship with believers and a witness to those who do not yet know Him. And may the Lord guard you from temptation and evil, from stumbling blocks and deception and every form of wrongdoing, and keep you in the protection and ministry He promises to His people, as you continue to come freely to His throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
