God loves prayers that are fueled by love - love for God and love for others.
I was reminded of this in reading a blog post by Phil Miglioratti on Pray!Network last night. Pray!Network is a great web site for those interested in prayer, particularly group prayer.
"Ensure that love is the motivating factor in every spoken or silent prayer," Miglioratti says.
For example, we could preface a prayer with words such as "Grant us the Father’s heart of love as we pray . . ." or "Break our hearts over the people and problems that break your heart, Lord. . . ."
This is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to fill us with God's love. As the apostle John says in 1 John 4:7, true, selfless love comes from God.
I am easily caught up in praying for things or ideas or concrete plans. But what about people? What about God?
Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, tells of a time when he was exhausted after a service and was sitting on the edge of the church platform when a dirty homeless man came up to him. The man smelled and Cymbala just wanted him to go, so he offered him money for his needs.
But the man said he didn't want the money - he wanted Jesus. Cymbala was struck to the heart and asked God for his love. And he embraced the man in tears and found God's love overcame the dirt and the smell.
Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbours. Shouldn't that animate our prayers for others as well as our relationship with the Lord?
"Love and prayer are inextricably linked - even in difficult situations," says Miglioratti. "Especially in difficult situations."
He reminds us of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44: "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Miglioratti has a few suggestions for our prayers:
In effect, this is a call to consciously seek the heart of God for our prayers. We know that God loves us and loves all people. He went so far as to send Jesus to die for us.I was reminded of this in reading a blog post by Phil Miglioratti on Pray!Network last night. Pray!Network is a great web site for those interested in prayer, particularly group prayer.
"Ensure that love is the motivating factor in every spoken or silent prayer," Miglioratti says.
For example, we could preface a prayer with words such as "Grant us the Father’s heart of love as we pray . . ." or "Break our hearts over the people and problems that break your heart, Lord. . . ."
This is an invitation to the Holy Spirit to fill us with God's love. As the apostle John says in 1 John 4:7, true, selfless love comes from God.
I am easily caught up in praying for things or ideas or concrete plans. But what about people? What about God?
Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, tells of a time when he was exhausted after a service and was sitting on the edge of the church platform when a dirty homeless man came up to him. The man smelled and Cymbala just wanted him to go, so he offered him money for his needs.
But the man said he didn't want the money - he wanted Jesus. Cymbala was struck to the heart and asked God for his love. And he embraced the man in tears and found God's love overcame the dirt and the smell.
Jesus told us that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbours. Shouldn't that animate our prayers for others as well as our relationship with the Lord?
"Love and prayer are inextricably linked - even in difficult situations," says Miglioratti. "Especially in difficult situations."
He reminds us of Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44: "I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Miglioratti has a few suggestions for our prayers:
- We should pray - and encourage others to pray - that our praises to God will be saturated with love for our Lord;
- We should pray that we will grow in love for other believers and, particularly, for those who are hard to love; and
- We should pray with love for the lost and the needy.
Miglioratti suggests that the church in the West is cold - and one reason is that we don't pray with the love of God.
The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 that the greatest gift of all is love - greater than any other spiritual gift.
He finishes his thought in 1 Corinthians 14:1 where he says "Let love be your highest goal!"
Let it be my goal in my prayers.
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