When Love Feels Costly - Your Nightly Prayer - February 9th
When Love Feels Costly
Your Nightly Prayer
By Lynette Kittle
TONIGHT'S SCRIPTURE
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”—John 15:13
SOMETHING TO PONDER
Often, in asking individuals preparing for their weddings what drew them to their future spouses, their answers are filled with all the ways they make them feel better about themselves and how they help them to be a more grounded and productive person by bringing out their strengths.
Instead of saying all the ways they believe they can encourage, uplift, support, be there, and sacrifice for their future spouse, it seems more often than not, their responses are focused on all they’ll be receiving in marriage rather than on all they have to offer the other person.
So what happens if and when the new spouse no longer continues saying or doing those things that make the husband or wife feel happy and better about themselves?
Divorce statistics give us the tragic answer to what happens to many couples, but what would happen in our world if we entered into marriage with the mindset and goal of loving and giving sacrificially?
As well, how would lives be influenced and transformed by our caring for family members and entering into friendships with the goal of loving and giving?
How would our own lives be different? As the Apostle Paul reminds us in Acts 20:35 that, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ “
Because love, the real kind that comes from God, isn’t about getting, it’s about giving, as God revealed by sacrificially giving us Jesus, the only one who could free us from the enemy’s deathly grasp of our souls, who freely laid down His life for us.
It cost God everything to give us Jesus, His only beloved Son. As John 3:16 explains, love requires us to give our all. “For 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.”
Love is costly because it’s selflessly giving at the highest cost for the benefit of another. Paul, in Philippians 2:5-8, explains it beautifully. “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Dear Father,
Words cannot express how deeply grateful our hearts are for the priceless sacrifice of Your perfect Son, Jesus, who, in obedience to You, laid down His life for us. Without Him, we would be eternally lost forever, held responsible for our sin debt, a debt we are completely incapable of paying on our own. But because of Your great love for us and the sacrifice of Your Beloved Son, we have been freed from the clutches of the enemy of our souls and redeemed to live forevermore in Your Holy Presence. Although we are undeserving of such an extravagant and sacrificial gift, You in Your great love and compassion, rescued us through Jesus’ life, death on the cross, and resurrection. Through Your loving sacrifice, we are able to offer and give sacrificial love to others, relying on Your strength to help us. Lead us today and each day to endure in loving others sacrificially as You have loved us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
1. What do you consider the most costly and sacrificial gift you’ve ever given to someone? Why did you choose to give it, and why was it such a sacrifice? Did it change their lives? Did it change your life? If so, in what ways?
2. Have you received God’s sacrificial gift through Jesus? If not, you can receive it today.
3. Scripture describes and outlines the remarkable benefits we receive through God’s sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. To learn more, check out Galatians 2:20; Colossians 2:14; and 1 Peter 2:24.
Reflect on tonight’s prayer and share how God met you there. Join the Your Nightly Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
Photo Credti: ©Francisco Moreno/Unsplash
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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