Prayer Focus: The Fruits of the Spirit:: LOVE.
Central Scripture: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way.It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices when the truth wins out. Love never gives us, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Prayer:
Eternal Father, today I place my family into Your care, and leave them under the umbrella of Your perfect love. My husband, my children, and I are rescued by a love that knows no bounds, and I pray that we would come to a fresh understanding of that love and how it affects us today.
Lord, as You live in us and Your Spirit works through us, I pray that my family would bear the fruit of love in our lives. Help us to be an example of godly love, not of love as the world knows it. Help us to shine with a love that stands out in its patience and kindness and selflessness and persistence and hope.
God, I pray that our lives would be a testimony of love, not just in how we love the world around us, but in how we love one another. It is so easy to take each other for granted, and I pray against the spirit of complacency that lets those closest to us take the brunt of all our frustrations and stress and troubles. You created families to be a place of intimacy, so we can be our truest selves in our homes…but even Jesus, at His most exhausted and stressed points, didn’t falter in His love for those closest to Him. Help our love for one another within these walls to be a model of Christlike love.
Father, help us to love with patience.
Let us love with kindness.
Create in us a love that knows no jealousy…cannot be boastful…always puts the other person first…and shows no capacity for rudeness.
Help us to seek the best for other people and never demand our own way through selfishness or pride.
Prevent us from being irritable and easily angered.
Help us to forgive and forget, keeping no remembrance of who has wronged us, and how.
Let us not tolerate gossip or slander, but help us to be vessels of truth and reconciliation.
Foster in us a love that never gives up, remains hopeful in every situation, and persists through even the most desperate of challenges.
Gracious God, You have saved us with a love that lasts forever. Teach us to rest in that love. Help us to abide in that love, that it will grow within us and be carried into the world.
Thank you for loving us. Help us to be changed and characterized by that love.
Amen.