Prayer To Know We Are Chosen and Dearly Loved
Friday August 28, 2020
Chosen and Dearly Loved
During times of unpredictable change – particularly when the degree of instability and change is on the scale we are experiencing with the pandemic – it is so important to have constants to help us stay grounded. We’ve spoken often about this but we’re putting the principle into effect by returning to the basics in our prayer time today.
It’s important to be reading something from God’s word every day and equally important to take time to let those words help us live under their power in this day. It’s so easy to know facts but God wants His word to be alive in us.
Jesus told us that He was our living bread and that whoever feeds on Him would live because of Him.
So today we’ll focus on just a few words and let them live in us. Let’s pray.
Therefore,
as God’s chosen people
holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness,
and patience.
Colossians 3:12
Heavenly Father, we want to live with You today and let Your life be expressed in who we are and all we do. On our own we are a bit of flesh and blood that gets older by the day and will one day fade away. But, over and over again Jesus promised us life that was forever and we want who we are today to be filled with that life. Our whole hope today is based in the fact that Jesus died for us and rose again from the dead. He became sin for us so we could become the righteousness of God. So that’s the life we stand on today – the life of Christ – Christ in us. Our lives now hidden with Christ in God.
Since, then, you have been raised
with Christ, set your hearts
on things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God.
For you died, and your life is
now hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1, 3
We don’t want this to simply be some spiritual understanding that gets filed away for future reference when we stand before God at the end of time to be used as our ticket into heaven. We want that life, that resurrection power of Jesus in us – that oneness with God of being in right relationship with our perfect and holy Heavenly Father that we could never hope to attain on our own – to be a deep source of gratitude and the motivation of everything we do today. Strip away all the other clutter and bring us back to the amazement this gift of God deserves.
… put on the new self,
which is being renewed i
n knowledge in the image
of its Creator
… but Christ is all,
and is in all.
Colossians 3:10-11
We live today because You’ve chosen to love us and make us Your own. You don’t just put up with us because You have to but You love us – dearly love us is what we’re told.
Therefore,
as God’s chosen people
holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness,
and patience.
Colossians 3:12
We ask You Holy Spirit, to help us understand more clearly and experience more deeply this amazing love of God for us and the incredible bond that’s been made between You and us that means we belong to You. We are Your chosen ones, holy and dearly loved. We say the words but our understanding is so shallow. Work in us today God so we settle our hearts and minds more and more in this unfailing life-changing love You have for us.
We do want that to overflow then in being like you – filled with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We want our motivation for how we use each moment of this day, how we interact in each encounter with others, how we put our hands and minds to work in each task to express Your heart and Your character. We can think of a long list of challenges to these 5 things – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience – the most significant one being our self-centeredness that would rather not go through the stretching and discomfort that rising to these attitudes and practices requires – particularly when the situation we’re in includes harshness or misunderstanding or thoughtlessness in some way from others.
Renew us today. Remake us in Your image. Fill us again with the power of the Holy Spirit so we live as Your chosen and dearly love people. Amen
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