A Prayer for God’s Love to Inform Your Love
Almighty God who spoke galaxies into being,
Who breathed life into dust
And who fashioned us to reflect your likeness,
Your love is as great as your power.
We pray today that you would make us anew
Heal us from our sin-sick selfishness,
Strip away greed from our clinging hands,
Overcome and pacify our violent anger,
Drive jealousy, gossip, and pride far from our hearts.
And let light shine out of darkness once again.
Teach us what it means to love.
Protect us from the evil of a knowledge
That knows no love.
And protect us from the evil of a love
That loves what is evil.
Give us love that abounds
With all knowledge and discernment (Philippians 1:9)
So that we may be safe in your love
And your love may be seen in us.
Teach us the way of your love,
For it is more excellent than spiritual powers
And any other supernatural gift (1 Cor 12:31).
If we speak in the tongues of men and of angels
But have not love,
It is meaningless noise
That disturbs many
And directs no one to grace (1 Cor 13:1)
Please guard us all
From adoring the melody of our own voices
Or the eloquence of our own words
For they are bit noisy gongs
Or clanging cymbals
For as long as my heart is left to itself.
Please give us a love for your Holy Word
And a love that listens to the hurts of our neighbor
So that our neighbors hear the noiseless music
Of our loving hearts
As we speak and act to bear your image.
If I have prophetic powers
And all knowledge, and all faith
But am without love,
I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2)
For God doesn’t approve of bare knowledge
Since even the demons know of God’s existence
Yet they refuse to live for him (James 2:19).
And God is not impressed by our powers
Or by the potency of our faith
For faith without works is dead (James 2:17).
Faith without love is nothing.
If I give away all my possessions
And give up my whole body to fire
Even then, I have not done what God desires,
For many men in their pride and vanity
Have subjected themselves
To poverty and to death
But God, we know you want nothing less
Than for your heart of love
To be formed and fashioned within us.
So teach us to love in truth, and with strength.
For love is patient; love is kind;
Love does not envy or boast
It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
It is not irritable or resentful.
But love despises wrongdoing
And rejoices in truth
Love bears, believes, hopes,
And endures all things (1 Cor 13:4-7).
Teach us a love that is not merely feminine,
Or a love that is merely masculine,
But teach us a love that is timeless,
Powerful, and divine.
For your love, O God, never ends.
And we want to learn the ways of your love.
For love never ends.
Though faith, hope, and love abide,
The greatest of these is love.
So lift up our distracted, dirty hearts,
And give us sight to behold your loveliness
And the persistence of your effective love
So that we would love the unlovely –
Other unlovely sinners, like us –
With a love that is unearned
And freely bestowed.
For this is how you love us.
And this is how we yearn to love our neighbor.
Be pleased to have your way in us,
And to fill the world with your glory
As you fill your people with your Spirit
And fill our hearts with your love.
We pray these things in Jesus’ Name,
AMEN.
