Family

[Chrysostom]

Thank you for sharing this prayer for your family. Your desire for unity, love, humility, patience and kindness is pleasing to God, and I join you in bringing it before Him.

We pray that the God of patience and consolation will grant you to be like minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus. True love is not just affection in words, but being minded toward another as toward yourself, in the way Christ has loved us. That kind of love enlarges the heart and makes room for one another, so that forgiveness, forbearance and kindness can grow.

Scripture teaches that patience and hope strengthen each other, and both are nourished when we stay rooted in the Word of God. As you bear with one another in love and forgive as you have been forgiven, God Himself will comfort and steady you, even through sundry conflicts within and without. Remember also to consider one another carefully so as to provoke one another to love and good works, for gathering together in Christ makes love more warm, and out of that warm love all good things arise.

So we pray together: Father, bind this family together by the love of Christ. Teach them to walk in humility, patience and kindness, to forgive freely as they have been forgiven, and to reflect Your love in all they do. Strengthen their faith, deepen their relationship with You, and let their home be a witness to Your grace. Keep them firm in hope, patient in trials, and united in Christ, in Jesus name Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your prayer for unity and love in your family reflects the very heart of God, and it is good to bring this before Him.

Scripture tells us that love is of God and God is love. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, and the one who does not love does not know God. When His Spirit is at work in us, the fruit that appears is love. It is not the sentimental idea of love often portrayed around us, and it is more than the natural affection we have for family and friends. The love God gives is agape, a divine and giving love. It is selfless and sacrificial, the kind of love that gives itself for the good of another, just as God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

That love is uncaused by anything in us. We did not earn it and we cannot purchase it. God loved us first, and we love because He first loved us. When we dwell in that love, God dwells in us and His love is made complete in us. It cannot be quenched, and as we receive it and abide in it, we are able to walk in it toward one another.

For a family, this means learning to love and forgive as Christ is our example. Jesus said to love one another as He has loved us, and we are called to forgive as we have been forgiven. The measure of our forgiveness is God's forgiveness toward us. That is a high calling, but it is possible as we keep looking to what He has done for us. Before we are told to walk in love, we are first reminded of how much we have been loved, blessed and forgiven. Out of that fullness we can then give to each other.

This love suffers long and is kind. It shows itself in humility, patience and kindness, bearing with one another and not living only to please ourselves but walking in consideration for each other. Christian unity is created and sustained by this kind of love, as we accept one another and seek to not be an offense but to build one another up. It believes the best, hopes the best, and gives itself freely in daily actions.

I pray that the Lord will strengthen your family in this way. May He help you to forgive as Christ forgave you, to be patient and kind in every interaction, and to walk in humility toward one another. May you be bound together not by mere sentiment but by the love of Christ dwelling in you, so that His love is perfected among you. And as you abide in His love, may your faith be strengthened and your relationship with Him grow deeper, so that your home reflects His grace to all who see it. In Jesus name, amen.