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A Prayer About Relational Messes & God’s Mercies

     You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Galatians 5:13-16

     Most patient and persistent Father, thank you for documenting the relational failures, foibles and foolishness of us, your people. The very fact that you have chronicled just how poorly we love one another is a witness to the steadfastness of your love and the daily-ness of your mercies. Who but you could love a people like us… a man like me?

     But it’s also a warning to us and a wooing to something so very much better. That we indulge our sinful nature and “bite and devour each other,” in a number of ways, is a fact, but it is not our fate. One Day we will be made perfect in love… and already we are perfectly and passionately loved in the gospel. Sear and seal this hope upon our hearts… send this good news deep and delightfully into the very core of my being. Indeed, God the Holy Spirit…

     When I am tempted to indulge in rehearsing the sins of others, turn my heart into a rehearsal hall for the symphony of grace. May the glorious music of the gospel drown out the squawks and tuneless noise of my self-righteousness and pettiness.

     When I am tempted to indulge in repeating the sins of others, shut me up by shouting to my heart that the Father will never repeat my sins to me or to anybody else. For he has remembered my sins against Jesus, and I am guilty no more. May the sweet-bread of gossip and slander become like rancid yogurt or rotting eggs in my mouth.

     When I am tempted to indulge in defensiveness or am overly zealous to protect my reputation, let me see Jesus, who made himself of no reputation… who was silent before his accusers. May the utter glory and grace of the gospel increasingly free me from my insecurities… my pride… my need to be understood, liked and “got,” by one and all.

     Holy Spirit, I want to live by you today, and I want greater freedom from all the stuff that keeps “faith from expressing itself in love” through my life. May gospel-gratification trump all flesh-gratification. So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ bold and beautiful name.

 

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