Good morning! Our world tells us love exists, especially during the holiday season or Valentines day. The world doesn’t tell us how to love well – at times the word requires action, it is manipulated, and sometimes feared. But God teaches us and shows us love. Love comes from Him. It’s not manipulative or trauma/fear driven. He simply loves us without condition and gives us a choice to accept His love. Enjoy today’s reading.

Bible Verse – 1 John 4:5-10 NLT

” ⁷ Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ 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.”

Prayer

Father God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for showing us throughout the Bible what Your love looks like and how much we are loved. Lord, you have been with us our entire lives and have taught us love. The world has been so busy in trying to undermine you, your love and how it should be displayed, that people have a hard time simply accepting your love and recognizing your grace is not based on works. Lord, during this season when we celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus coming to earth – let us not forget that it was Love that sent Him here for us. 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.

Lord, we want to love others as you have loved us. We want to show compassion to the least up to the most. We want to love because you love us. Lord, continue to teach us to love like you love. Help us to love without manipulation or trauma or drama. Helps us to be able to truly love. Lord, we pray for those who have had bad experiences with love or loving others. Lord, you know exactly what happened in their lives and in relationships that have kept them from loving others. Lord, you know what walls were built up and framed, you know the lies and the gossip that stained their hearts. Lord, today we ask that you help heal our hearts so that we can love. Lord, give us discernment as we show love to others. Lord, where their is distrust help us to establish healthy boundaries and still be able to love. Lord, we don’t want to walk around with calloused and hardened hearts, so help us to not overlook Your teaching on love, but continue your work in us one day at a time.

Lord, we continue to pray for the unhoused- that you will help them rebuild and restore their lives free of addiction and poverty. Lord, we pray for the widow whose husband or wife is no longer with them. Lord, we pray for you to give them strength during this time and loss. Lord, we pray for those who have lost their loved ones this year. Lord, continue to work in us – strengthening, comforting, caring, and providing for our every need. Lord, encourage each person right where they are and give them peace. Lord, we pray for the mother whose child is ill and battling cancer or other medical illnesses. Lord, strengthen that mother and answer her prayers for healing. Lord, we lift up the man who is battling cancer today. Lord, you know the results of the surgery from the surgeon’s perspective but we know You have a better perspective, a cure, remission, medical treatment, and simply your ability to perform miracles. Lord, we are praying for a miracle today. Heal him and restore him, give him many more years of life. Lord, we pray for the woman who has asked to remain on our prayer list for six more months. Lord, you know her prayer, you know her cry, you know her needs. Lord, continue to work in her life and heal her. Lord, we pray for the man who has been in the hospital for weeks and we ask for healing for Jim. Lord, we pray for my husband who lost his mom in October and lost his dad on Friday. Lord, strengthen him, comfort him, give him peace, and remind him always of how much you have and will always love him and will never leave him.

Lord, keep transforming us. In Jesus name, amen.

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