Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer shows a tender heart that grieves over hate and longs for people to love each other as God loves us, and God hears that cry. Hate is wrong, and any hatred of one person for another because of skin color is sin. God made all people in His image and His love is for the whole world, for people of every color and background.
Scripture says love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, because God is love. The evidence that His Spirit is at work in us is this kind of love growing in our lives. It is not just a feeling or a physical attraction or even a natural affection for family and friends. Those loves are real on their own level, but the love God calls us to is deeper. It is a giving, selfless love that comes from the Spirit, the same love God showed when He gave His Son for us.
That is the heart of the gospel. The wonder is not that we love God, for we have every reason to love Him, but that He loved us first while we were still sinners and sent Jesus to be the payment for our sins. The cross is how God declares His love. When we understand how much He has loved us, it creates a response in us and we begin to love Him and to love others with His love. As we live in that love, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
That love is shown not only in words but in deeds and in truth. To say we love with our lips is not enough. True love is revealed in actions, in kindness, in patience, in doing good even to those who hate us and praying for those who mistreat us. Jesus taught that if we only love those who love us we do no more than others do, but we are called to love even our enemies and to seek reconciliation, just as God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself.
I join you in praying that God would push back the hate and division that is stressing you and so many others, and that He would bring people together in genuine love. I join you in praying for those who have been hurt, for those who suffer injustice, and for those whose hearts have grown hard and cold, including those in authority. Only God can soften a heart, and we can ask Him to pour His love into hearts that are now filled with hatred or indifference, so that they may see every person as someone for whom Christ died.
May the Lord comfort you in your sadness and keep your heart tender without letting bitterness take root. Keep bringing these burdens to Him. Ask Him to fill you daily with His Spirit so that His love flows through you in practical ways, in prayer, in kindness, in speaking truth with grace, and in living as Christ lived in this world, loving as He loves. His love for you is not earned and cannot be bought, it is freely given and nothing can quench it, and as you abide in it you will have confidence before Him.
Father, thank You for Your great love shown at the cross. We receive that love through Jesus Christ and ask You to make it perfect in us, so we may love one another as You have loved us. Heal division, turn hearts from hate, and help us to walk in Your love and to share it with a needy world. In Jesus name, amen.
Scripture says love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, because God is love. The evidence that His Spirit is at work in us is this kind of love growing in our lives. It is not just a feeling or a physical attraction or even a natural affection for family and friends. Those loves are real on their own level, but the love God calls us to is deeper. It is a giving, selfless love that comes from the Spirit, the same love God showed when He gave His Son for us.
That is the heart of the gospel. The wonder is not that we love God, for we have every reason to love Him, but that He loved us first while we were still sinners and sent Jesus to be the payment for our sins. The cross is how God declares His love. When we understand how much He has loved us, it creates a response in us and we begin to love Him and to love others with His love. As we live in that love, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
That love is shown not only in words but in deeds and in truth. To say we love with our lips is not enough. True love is revealed in actions, in kindness, in patience, in doing good even to those who hate us and praying for those who mistreat us. Jesus taught that if we only love those who love us we do no more than others do, but we are called to love even our enemies and to seek reconciliation, just as God in Christ was reconciling the world to Himself.
I join you in praying that God would push back the hate and division that is stressing you and so many others, and that He would bring people together in genuine love. I join you in praying for those who have been hurt, for those who suffer injustice, and for those whose hearts have grown hard and cold, including those in authority. Only God can soften a heart, and we can ask Him to pour His love into hearts that are now filled with hatred or indifference, so that they may see every person as someone for whom Christ died.
May the Lord comfort you in your sadness and keep your heart tender without letting bitterness take root. Keep bringing these burdens to Him. Ask Him to fill you daily with His Spirit so that His love flows through you in practical ways, in prayer, in kindness, in speaking truth with grace, and in living as Christ lived in this world, loving as He loves. His love for you is not earned and cannot be bought, it is freely given and nothing can quench it, and as you abide in it you will have confidence before Him.
Father, thank You for Your great love shown at the cross. We receive that love through Jesus Christ and ask You to make it perfect in us, so we may love one another as You have loved us. Heal division, turn hearts from hate, and help us to walk in Your love and to share it with a needy world. In Jesus name, amen.
