Greetings Prayer Warriors,
Have you ever desired to love your spouse as Jesus does? Maybe you’ve never thought of such a prayer, but I can tell you with confidence, that is how they would like to be loved.
I belong to my lover, and my lover belongs to me. Song of Songs 6:3
You may be thinking that’s a tall order! And it is. Yet, one can’t even get near to achieving that if one doesn’t empty oneself of all the useless stuff taking up space in their heart. Pause and contemplate what consumes your desires. What? Why? How much? Ponder it some more.
For the first time in my memory, Valentine's Day lands on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is really just the prequel to the greatest Love story ever told, one of complete sacrificial love; one that requires emptying oneself for the beloved, to imitate the Beloved.
Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:6-8
If you haven’t decided on what to do for Lent, consider vowing to empty your heart of the useless, to make room for the Divine.
Lord, our greatest desire is to be loved, and to be known. Yet we are stingy with our love and extravagant with our demands. Help us to purge all the clutter occupying our hearts so that we may become extravagant with our love and stingy with our demands. Shine a light in our souls so that we can more truthfully examine the junkyard that exists there. With your compassion and grace, help us purge the waste. Then fill us with your merciful and unfathomable love, so that we can share it more fully in our marriages, glorifying You and testifying to your amazing grace and love.
May He grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
Peace, Joy, and Love,
Janet
Fill your heart with the love of Christ and pass it on!
