Held in Steady Love - Your Nightly Prayer - May 14th
Held In Steady Love
Your Nightly Prayer
By Lynette Kittle
TONIGHT'S SCRIPTURE
“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing”--Zephaniah 3:17
SOMETHING TO PONDER
Sometimes, especially if we’ve experienced rejection from those closest to us, we may feel unloved and unwanted, feeling like we didn’t meet others’ expectations of us, letting them down and disappointing them. As a mom or dad, our children’s imperfections usually soften our hearts and make us more tender towards them, leading us to love and hold them even closer. This kind of compassionate, tenderhearted love isn’t something that comes from within ourselves, but from God, whose image we bear and who is pure love as 1 John 4:8 describes.
Thankfully, often, as many of us become parents, we begin to understand God’s love for us in a deeper way, experiencing delight in our own children. Despite their quirks, faults, and imperfections, we soon learn and realize that as they grow, their frailties don’t push us away from them, but actually deepen our love for them. It’s a love that’s far deeper and much more steadfast than surface, worldly kind of love, the type of love that’s based on outward behaviors, or what someone offers us, or what they look like. This heartfelt love is about loving our children the way God loves us, whose love flows to us from who He is, rather than from who we are.
Like the love we experience for our own children, God’s love is steady, delighting in us as we grow, rooted in His character and in His steadfast love for us, as 1 John 4:19 reminds us: “We love because He first loved us.” As Christians, when God looks at us, He sees who we are becoming, like His perfect Son, Jesus, whose righteousness covers us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains how,
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
YOUR NIGHLY PRAYER
Dear Father,
Thank you for holding me in Your steady love. Open my heart to receive and believe that You are with me, that You saved me, and rejoice over me with singing. My heart is softened by knowing that You delight in me. Let Your Holy Spirit guard my mind and heart from doubting Your love, especially when my weaknesses and frailties try to convince me otherwise. Free me from unbelief and help me to receive Your lavish love for me tonight and every day of my life.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
- Are you feeling loved by God tonight? If not, take time to consider His love for You described in His word, by reviewing His lovely characteristics. After you do, spend some time letting God know the ways you delight in Him, too, perhaps singing a song to Him that expresses your delight.
- If you’re a parent, has having a child helped you to better understand God’s love for you? In what ways has parenting given you a deeper knowledge of His love for you?
- If you're still having trouble believing that God loves you, ask Him to help you understand the ways He delights in you, as described in Zephaniah 3:17.
Reflect on tonight’s prayer and share how God met you there. Join the Your Nightly Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Matt Henry Gunther
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
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