Fast, Pray, LoveSample

Pray to Grow in your Love for God and Others

Read John 13:34 - 35.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Meditate On It

1. What is Jesus’ command to the disciples?

• Read John 14:15: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
• Read John 14:21: Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

2. In what way did Jesus show his love for his disciples?

• Read John 13:1: Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
• Read John 13:5: Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

3. What does it look like to love others intentionally?

• Read Romans 12:9-13: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

4. What is the effect when disciples exhibit love for one another?

• Read 1 John 4:10-12: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
• Read 1 John 4:19-21: We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Apply It

Mark 12:30-31 says, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus summarized the top two greatest commands: to love God with all our being and to love others as we love ourselves. This is why growing in our love for God and others is something we need to be intentional about daily. We follow after the example and instruction of Jesus, the lover of our souls. May we grow in a lifestyle of loving God and be known by such love expressed in how we love others.

Take the time to thank God for how He has loved you deeply and unconditionally. Worship Him for all the loving deeds He has exhibited in your life through every season.

1. How can I constantly grow in my love for God? What habits can I practice starting today to know God more and experience His presence in my life?
2. How can I practice loving others more? Who is God impressing upon me to reach out to, pray and care for?
3. As a citizen of this nation, a member of your family, and part of the body of Christ, am I known for a lifestyle of love? How can I show my love in these various areas of life?
4. By faith, I will do my part by:

• Set Simple, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic, Time-bound (SMART) commitments
• Example: “As a Christ-follower, I will pray and fast every Friday at noon for the country, my church, and my family.”

Pray It

• Intercede for the citizens of our nation—that we may all learn to love God and one another as Christ has loved us.
• Intercede on behalf of our country—that we may all seek the Lord and do His will over the issues that continually encroach upon our nation.
• Pray for leaders to uphold biblical values and exemplify godly character, competence, justice, accountability, and family—for them to serve with integrity, wisdom, faithfulness, protection, and guidance
• Pray for major national issues:
  • For CoVid19 pandemic to be over, proper crisis management, and economic sustainability
  • Graft and corruption, drugs, forced labor, human trafficking
  • Ungodly values, moral decline, materialism, idolatry
  • Economic hurdles, high gas prices, inflation, traffic problem, bills, and laws that are against God’s word and will
  • That more people from all walks of life be saved, disciples, and for them to develop a genuine love for the Lord.
• Lift a prayer for the world—including other nations and governments, that we may all depend on the Lord to thwart the further spread of CoVid19, to carry us through the adverse effects on the world economy, and for peace in Ukraine and other conflict-ridden, war-torn and economically-devastated countries (e.g., Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Rohingyan nation).
• Pray that every nation would come to know and experience the love of God in Christ through His church.