Prayers for the Week: Let Love Win

Image ©Temple Baptist Church of Rogers, AR

My friends, welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post.  This week has seen victory and defeat, joy and sorrow, anger and happiness, and fear beyond measure.  Unfortunately, though, this week has not seen enough of the one thing that can help us heal in this world: Love.

Today, my friends, this special prayer post is going to share with you some of our favorite verses on Love.  All of the anger and hatred that is moving through the country can only be defeated with love.  Sit back, pray, and read these verses with us, and follow up with our prayer requests and praises further on.

Matthew 5:43-48

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Romans 13:8-10

8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Proverbs 3:3-6

3Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4Then you will win favor and a good name

in the sight of God and man.

 

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

6in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

1 John 4:7-21

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

John 3:16-21

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of Godʼs one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

There is a lot of instruction about what true love really is in these verses.  To those that are busy rioting and protesting the election, throwing rocks, injuring others, and claiming that Trump will never be there president, well, you should take a look at these verses.  For those that are gloating the victory, showing hatred and bigotry and racist behaviors because their man Trump won — well, you should take a look at these verses as well. The simple fact is this: If you have the love of Christ in your heart, you will not be spreading hate.

It is okay to be disappointed with the results of an election, especially as important an election as this one was.  It is equally okay to feel like the better person did not win, that hate will rule the day because of Trump’s quotes over the course of the campaign.  What is not okay, though, is to let outside influences — the work of the Devil — to invade your otherwise peaceful intentions and turn them into hate.

I lost my job, along with several of my co-workers, over a year ago when our executive management decided to outsource their IT department.  In many ways, the senior management was the embodiment of the “establishment”, and they were doing all they could to remain in control.  They still are, and have announced even more layoffs of jobs of people like me that are struggling to survive as it is.  Despite losing my job, and still struggling to this day, over a year later, the key to me is that I have not given in to my hate, have not let my anger get the best of me, have not gone out and destroyed things because things haven’t gone my way.

What I have done is turn to my Lord, and asked Him to help guide us, to teach us what we should know, and to help us in our need.  He has done just that!  Things are still not going as well as I would like, but my wife and daughter and I, we know love, and we are stronger in our faith than ever before.

My plea to those that turn to hate, to destruction, to chaos, is this: turn away from that path, before it utterly consumes you, and you are lost forever.

Now, please pray with us over our prayer requests.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for Lori Cove and Virginia Davis, who were victims of a hit-and-run while riding their bikes. Virginia is doing better, but Lori is in critical care on life support. Please pray for healing and for God’s Peace, Comfort, Strength, and Love to shower her and all her friends and family.
• My friend Kathleen has a prayer request today: Friends, my husband, Edward Kelly has been in the hospital all weekend. At first doctors thought it was a stroke, but they are not sure. It’s definitely something neurological and it has impacted him severely. Please send prayers/healing thoughts — thank you!
• My friend Angela has a prayer request: Please keep my grandson Blake in prayer. He has been very sick with bronchitis for awhile and now, due to his asthma, it has turned into pneumonia.
• My friend Jeff has a prayer request: Thoughts and prayers to the Caruso family as heaven has taken a wonderful person too soon. I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa in college, and was honored to be asked to be a part of her wedding. She was a wonderful person and always had a smile on her face. May God watch over Giorgio and Sophia during these difficult times.
• My friend Heather has a prayer request: Next Saturday my oldest and only daughter gets married! We are happy God helped her find her soul mate but feeling a little empty already too. Just praying for no more issues to arise and a beautiful day since it will be outside.
• My Aunt Kitty has a prayer request: Pray for all these people that are going nuts n beating up others cuz they voted for Trump! Donald Trump is not (NOT) a racist! Unbelievable. So yes Mike we need to pray for those that think it’s ok to trash property and other human beings. And especially for those being beaten.
• Lastly, I leave you with my words from Wednesday: In the aftermath of this election, there are a lot of people hurt and angry; as many people are hurting as there are cheering. On this day, I urge my friends to remember that God is the one in charge here, and that those that govern do so because of God’s Will. My prayers for this nation continue — that we would wake up, turn our focus on Jesus, realize that we are all imperfect vessels, and ask for God to come into our lives and transform them in ways that we can’t imagine right now.The division still exists, and it is now time for our leaders and ourselves to start healing that division. May God Bless us all, and God Bless the USA. In Jesus name I pray with Thanksgiving. Amen.

Now, please pray with me the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those that trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory
Forever and ever. Amen.