Pray for Families (Learning to Love)

Greetings Prayer Warriors,

Time is finite, yet how many minutes/hours/days/weeks/months do you waste being annoyed, irritated, angry, resentful, or bitter toward someone?  How much time do you lose by closing the door on a relationship, even if justified?  We are called to love.  We are called to forgive.

Lord, come to our assistance!  Help us to reflect your image in word, deed, and disposition.  May we be but an instrument in your hand so that you may bring about healing in our relationships and in our families. 

Consider the depth and genuineness of Christ’s love for us.  When we turn our back on Him by choosing sin, He responds by loving us more. He calls us to love again.

To understand such love, all one has to do is look at a crucifix and ponder His path. He endured unfathomable pain, so that the gates of Heaven would be reopened to all of us. He was loved, then shunned, and then experienced the depth and grotesqueness of our sin while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Its weight caused Him to sweat blood.  He was betrayed, scourged to a point just short of death, mocked, spat upon, and then a crown of thorns was pounded into his skull.  He was then forced to carry a heavy cross up a hill, while being prodded like an animal. He was stripped of His clothes, nailed to a cross, and humiliated.  His response? 

“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”  Luke 23:34

Love is a complete surrender to the Lord’s will and a decision to forgive everyone.  In light of this, let us pray a prayer of surrender, The Suscipe, that by surrendering to Him, the Lord may love our families through us.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.

Amen!

Peace, Joy, and Love,

Janet

Pray the Suscipe! Pass it on!