FEBRUARY 2018 MBUMC FOCUS PRAYER
You are invited to join the Prayer Ministry team in praying this prayer.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)
O Father, God, in this month we often celebrate love. Too often we don’t
know what love is. Thank you for the clarity and the power of your Word. What if I
could speak all languages of humans and of angels? You say that if I did not love
others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. What if I
could prophesy and understand all secrets and all knowledge? And what if I had
faith that moved mountains? You say that I would be nothing, unless I loved others.
What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive? You say that I
would gain nothing, unless I loved others. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 CEV)
How must I act to be a loving person? You say that love is kind and patient,
never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. You say that love isn’t selfish or quick
tempered. It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs that others do. Love rejoices in the
truth, but not in evil. Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful and trusting. You say
that love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 CEV)
Lord, when I was a child, I thought and reasoned like a child. But when I
grew up, I quit childish ways. You say that now all we can see of God is like a cloudy
picture in a mirror. Later we will see you face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12aCEV)
Lord, you say that whoever does not love does not know you, because God is
love. No one has ever seen you, God, but you say that if we love one another, God
lives in us and your love is made complete in us. And so we know and rely on the
love you have for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God them.
(1 John 4:8, 12, 16 NIV) Thanks be to God, Amen.
Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire,
And nave not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass and hopeless gain.
Though I may give all I possess, and striving so my love profess,
But not be given by love within, the profit soon turns strangely thin.
Come Spirit, come, our hearts control, our spirits long to be made whole.
Let inward love guide every deed; by this we worship and are freed.
H408, The Gift of Love, words and traditional English melody adaptation by Hal Hopson, 1972.
Like this? Please let us know!