Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving me first. I know I can’t love anyone else the way they should be loved without your love flowing through me. I admit my selfishness. I admit that I often do things that appear to be loving, but have ulterior motives attached. So I ask today that you would teach me how to love you with all my heart, soul, and mind.
May my roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may I be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for myself, though it is so great that I will never see the end of it
It’s easy for me to get caught up in rules. I’m good at checking things off a list. But I know that loving you wholeheartedly does not mean that I follow a bunch of rules. I know that it means spending time with you, listening to you, talking to you. It means being real with you.
You already know everything that’s in my heart anyway. So give me the courage to speak those things to you.
Help me to truly believe that you love me unconditionally. You want me to have abundant life. I can trust you. I know that in my mind. Now help me believe that deep down in my heart so that I can love you unconditionally.
I know that kind of love with transform my life. I know that I can’t say that I love you and then hate my brother or sister. I know that I can’t love you and treat others unkindly. That makes me a hypocrite. I do not want to be a hypocrite.
Love you, love others. It’s that simple, but it’s not easy. Thank you for being patient with me.
Amen.
Learning to love God and neighbor is an on going process. Keep learning!
