“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he’ll give it to you. He won’t roll his eye or rebuke you for asking.” (pp James1:5)
Heavenly Father, thank you for your daily mercies, eternal kindness, and measureless generosity. In particular, thank you for being generous with your wisdom. Each of us needs the riches of your grace and wisdom beyond our own to love well in the wide range of relationships we inhabit.
Abba, to be specific, help me know how to love “as unto you”—versus loving to get something, effect a change, or fill some need in me. You’ve convicted me recently that I don’t just err on the side of keeping a record of things others have done wrong; I also err by keeping a record of things I’ve done right—assuming my “goodness” buys or earns my desired response. As my heart and fingers write this prayer, I see how grace-void, transactional, and “horizontally-legalistic” that actually is. Forgive and free me.
Also, help me get better at validating what people are feeling without taking their emotions personally, or taking responsibility for their emotions. Help me with my emotional triggers. Shame, fear, and anger are always lurking nearby. Continue to reveal and heal my heart-wounds that remain in need of your grace, surgery, and rehab. Continue to free me from relational patterns I learned (and mastered) in response to experiences of loss, abandonment, and growing up as an emotional orphan in my home.
Continue to supersize my experience of your steadfast, unwavering, unparalleled love, and grant me sweet humility and quick repentances, Abba. I long for the Day when I will never sin again in thought, word, and deed; and will only love perfectly. Hallelujah! Hasten that Day! So Very Amen!
