Love in Deed and in Truth

 

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

 

—1 John 3:18 (ESV)

 

 

Heavenly Father,

 

May every deed I do confirm the truth of every word I speak of my love.

 

Don’t allow me to merely talk about my love. Cause Your love to fill my heart and drive my words to produce in me the actions that demonstrate the proof of real love.

 

Don’t allow me to withhold Your love within me from anyone who needs it. Help me give it freely and generously in my every thought, word, and action toward another.

 

Don’t allow me to be any less than humble before you and others. Help me to give the best of what I have been given to meet the need in someone else—that need that cries out for real love.

 

May every deed I do confirm the truth of every word I speak of my love.

 

In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

On Things Infinitely More Real

So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

—2 Corinthians 4:18 (NLT)

Heavenly Father,

Help me look beyond any troubles that I see pressing in around me and help me to fix my gaze on the things that I cannot see—those things that will last forever, but can only be known by faith.

Help me to remember that the troubles of this life that I face today are temporary and will soon pass away—just as everything that I now see with my eyes, will one day be gone.

Help me to set the eyes of my heart on those things that I cannot see with my physical eyes—things which are timeless and deathless, which bring me eternal life, and are infinitely more real than those things which I do see with my eyes.

Thank You that this life is not all there is—with its sickness, pain, suffering, persecution and injustice—but that even while I am here, You will use every hardship that I face for my ultimate good, and that, in Your perfect timing, You will set all things right, if I will surrender my will to Yours.

Keep me forward-thinking to that which awaits me—not as an escape from the troubles that I face, but rather, to keep them in perspective with the great plan that You have for my eternal destiny with You—as You keep me at peace and sustain me, with Your strength, through every hardship I face.

Help me look beyond any troubles that I see pressing in around me and help me to fix my gaze on the things that I cannot see—those things that will last forever, but can only be known by faith.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Faith Walking

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

—2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)

Heavenly Father,

Help me remember that as long as I am here on earth, I am to walk by faith and not by sight—that faith is given to me for this world and that true sight is yet awaiting me, in the world to come.

Help me not to be fooled into believing a lie—deceived by my own natural eyes—when that which I cannot see—that is, the realm of the Spirit—is truer and more real than anything I can now see.

Help me to understand that faith is mine to help me get through this life, until that day when I join You there and will know all things as they are—when faith will no longer be needed.

Remind me that my part is just to believe that You are who You are and that what You have told me is true, and then wait—as according to Your perfect will, plan and purpose, You choose to reveal to me how those things that I have believed are true.

Help me remember that as long as I am here on earth, I am to walk by faith and not by sight—that faith is given to me for this world and that true sight is yet awaiting me, in the world to come.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

What Real Love Is

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

—1 John 4:10-12 (NLT)

Heavenly Father,

Help me to fully understand what real love is, so that I would love more like You love—knowing that as I sacrificially love others, it is You that lives in me and Your love that is brought to full expression in me.

I know that my love for You will never match the love You have for me and for each and every other soul You have created—a love demonstrated by the sacrifice of Your only begotten Son for all of our sins.

But still, help me to love You more each day—and help me to demonstrate that love for You by loving others, as I ought to, with Your love, that they might see You in me.

For no one has ever actually seen You.  But if I truly love others, You are alive in me, and Your love will be revealed in full expression through me—so that not only would those I love come to know You more, but I would experience who You are in me more deeply and intimately, as well.

Help me to fully understand what real love is, so that I would love more like You love—knowing that as I sacrificially love others, it is You that lives in me and Your love that is brought to full expression in me.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.