Month: June 2012

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Love & Pray

I returned only a couple of days ago from a trip to Europe. There is a seven hour difference, so I found myself wide awake at 4 a.m. this morning. I lay in bed and listened to a song playing in my heart, How He Loves Us. A person came to mind. Someone I love. I began to pray for them as I lay there. At some point I began to think about why I was praying for them.

This person is in the ministry. She is sharing the gospel all over the world. Lives are being changed. While these are reasons to pray for her, I realized that the reason I was praying for her is because I love her. The people I pray for the most are the people I love the most. I don’t have to be asked to pray for my husband, my parents, my family, my closest friends. I love them, so I pray for them.

A scripture came to mind as I lay there.

…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (Matthew 5:44, Amplified)

While we may not love what our enemies are doing to us, our motivation to pray for them must be the same. Our motivation must always be love.

For God so loved the world… (John 3:16, KJV

But God shows and clearly proves his own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ…died for us. (Romans 5:8, Amplified)

The next time you find yourself faced with an enemy. The next time you decide to pray for your enemies. Find that place of love, God’s love for them, and pray.

There will be times when you feel the love of God rise up and feel compelled to pray for your enemies. But just as we hear that “love is choice” concerning our closest relationships, it is also a choice you can make with your enemies. You can choose to love and you can choose to pray for them.

…God has poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit… (Romans 5:5, NIV)

…You have loved back my life from the pit of corruption and nothingness… (Isaiah 38:17, Amplified)

Let us love. Let us pray. Let us win their lives back. Selah.

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Experience the Love

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trust in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. (John 3:16-17, Amplified)

A friend came over today for our weekly prayer for the nation. As we prayed, God brought us back to a scripture that we read almost every time we come together to pray. It is Ephesians 3:14-21. This is a scripture that I have known, studied, prayed and meditated on for more than a decade. However, today something in it struck me in a different way. It is found in verse 19 in the Amplified Bible.

[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ…

For years I have prayed that I would know and experience His love for me personally. For years I have prayed for my loved ones to know and experience the love He has for each of them. I have also prayed for my ‘enemies’ to know and experience His love. But today I prayed something else. I prayed that I would know and experience His love for others. I prayed that the Body of Christ would know and experience His love for the world. For God so loved the world…

I had an experience about 17 years ago. I was walking through my living room when I saw a Christian woman on television. She had a tall and long wig and lots of makeup. In my heart I judged her appearance and how I thought her appearance made Christians look goofy or weird. I then fell to my knees. Not in repentance, though that quickly followed.

My knees actually buckled under the weight of love that I suddenly felt for this woman. God had allowed me to experience for a moment at least some of the love that He felt for her, this woman that I had just judged. I repented. To this day I refuse to judge, reject, condemn or pass sentence on anyone, because He loves them. He sent His Son to save them not judge and reject them.

…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… (Matthew 5:44, Amplified)

…but You have loved back my life from the pit of corruption and nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. (Isaiah 38:17, Amplified)

Strengthen us Lord that we might experience Your love for the world.