×
A Prayer About Loving the Wrong Thing
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. 3 John 9-10
Dear Lord Jesus, being chronicled in the Bible as a follower of Jesus who loved being first, isn’t a very attractive proposition. I have no clue what was going on in Diotrephes’ life and heart that made him so distrusting of the apostle John, and so insecure, petty and divisive, but his story certainly invites me to look at mine.
Jesus, please convict me and free me from the ways I, too, love to be first.
In my marriage-when my zeal to be right and win the argument is more notorious than my commitment to listen and understand my spouse; when I pout more than I pursue my spouse
In my friendships-when my need to be remembered and appreciated is more pronounced than my commitment to stay in touch with and serve my friends.
In my vocation-when the people who work with me feel like I’m far more taken up with my reputation and success than I’m committed to love and serve as a member of a team.
In the general population-when I navigate through life with little eye contact and don’t work hard to remember names.
In the grocery story-when I push my shopping-cart around like I’m driving in the Daytona 500, racing up and down the aisles, grabbing items and speeding-up to get to the shortest check-out line first.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. You didn’t consider your equality with God something to be held onto selfishly. You didn’t love to be first. Rather, you emptied yourself by taking the very nature of a man-a servant man, a man who served me by fulfilling all the demands of the law for me and by exhausting God’s judgment against all my sin on the cross. Now you ever live to serve me, as my advocate, intercessor and bridegroom.
I am convicted and humbled, afresh, by your lavish and selfless love. Restore my first love for you, that my love for being first will decrease and die a thousand deaths. So very Amen, I pray, in your matchless name.

LOAD MORE
Loading