To Love others well

 

31 days of prayer and fasting 

Day 28 

Fasting to Love Others Well 

Scripture: 

1 Peter 4:8 

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Colossians 3:14 

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 Corinthians 13:13 

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

John 15:13 

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone

who loves is a child of God and knows God."

- 1 John 4:7, NLT

My experience of having walk in Love was one day I received a email and I find myself , Mad as I snarled under my breath at a curt response to a email. This wasn't our first less-than-pleasant interaction; we often struggled to get on the same page when working together. Have you ever found yourself at odds with someone? Maybe you complain to your spouse or a friend about how this person grates on your last nerve. Or perhaps you found yourself unable to see the good in this person, overly criticizing their every word and action in your mind. Does anyone else out there overreact like me, going as far as considering ways you might avoid interacting with this person altogether? The truth is the more we engage with others, the more inevitable conflict becomes. But we have two options when approaching difficult interactions: you loved us still. So much so, that you gave your life in our place and defeated death so that we could live with you forever in eternity. Lord, I admit that type of love doesn't come naturally to me. The last thing I want to do when someone offends me or upsets me is to love them, much less invite them to join my family forever. But that's exactly what you did. Lord, forgive me for not loving others the way you showed us to love. God, would you help us to love you and grow in the knowledge of you and your Word? Would you help us to relate to others in a way that shows them that we belong to you? Lord, would you make your people grow in love for you and others so that onlookers would know that you exist and that you love them too?

Is anyone else's toes hurting? Feel like some stepping on mines while  our squabbles  with others may not be as serious as what  this church was dealing with, John's charge still applies to us. Our annoyances with people may not be because they've done something as offensive as falsely prophesying, but if John's instruction to the church for that infraction was to love others, then I imagine his exhortation to us would be similar. Every time we work closely with someone, send email correspondence, or comment on social media is a chance to prove we belong to God because these are opportunities to love others with the same love God has shown us. So when we find ourselves struggling to relate to someone, huffing in annoyance with another person, or downright avoiding that individual who gets on our nerves, maybe we can pause to consider two things: whose we are and who we are. We are children of God. A God who went to great lengths to love us even though we were unlovable. So, how would a child of God respond-victoriously ? We show love!

Let’s pray: 

Lord , Thank you for loving us when we were very unlovable! While we were sinners you died for us (Romans 5:8  We have offended you deeply, yet you loved us still. So much so, that you gave your life in our place and defeated death so that we could live with you forever in eternity. 

Lord, I admit that type of love doesn’t come naturally to me. The last thing I want to do when someone offends me or upsets me is to love them, much less invite them to join my family forever. But that’s exactly what you did. Lord, forgive me for not loving others the way you showed us to love. God, would you help us to love you and grow in the knowledge of you and your Word? Would you help us to relate to others in a way that shows them that we belong to you? Lord, would you make your people grow in love for you and others so that onlookers would know that you exist and that you love them too? God, would you forgive us when we allow petty annoyances to distract us and make us forget the good news of the gospel and our roles as your ambassadors? Holy Spirit, would you convict us when we overreact to the shortcomings of others? Would you strengthen and equip us to love others well? Thank you that this is possible because you loved us and love comes from you.

In Jesus' name, we Pray 

MONIZION

JESUS IS MY EVERYTHING 

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