A prayer based on 1 John 2:1-27.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Lord, you want us to have confidence, to be certain, that we really do know you as our God. We thank you that you have made it clear to us, what those who know you, will be marked by. That they are believing in Jesus. That they are loving one another. That they are seeking to obey your commands. We want, gracious God, to have this assurance that we know you Father, that we know your Son Jesus, that our sins have been forgiven, and that you live in us by your Spirit.

So, help us we pray, to believe in Jesus, your Son. To believe that because you loved the world so much, you sent Him into the world. That He took on flesh because only as the God-man could He save us. Because only one who is fully God and truly man could be the atoning sacrifice that can turn away your wrath against us, and who by living a perfect life is able to clothe the entirety of who we are with His righteousness. Help us to keep believing in Him, the truth about Him written down in Scripture, because we know we are living in days where there are people who are distorting and denying this. May their presence and their teaching not surprise us nor threaten our faith in Christ. Protect us we ask, from being led astray and rejecting the truth about our Saviour. From being taken captive by the wrong ideas out there about who Jesus is. To persevere, believing that one day He will present us before you, our Father, faultless, and take us to be with Him forever in a new and perfect creation. Lord, we pray for those who are part of cults or false religions, who believe in the wrong Jesus, a Jesus that cannot save them. Convict them of their error. Open their eyes to see His glory. And grant to them repentance and faith. Call them out of darkness and into the kingdom of heaven.

Help us, too, to love one another, as Christ has loved us. To keep this new command He gave to His disciples - to love with a sacrificial, costly, love. The same love that our Saviour showed to us when He suffered, bled, and died on the cross in our place. Give us a willingness to do whatever we can to avoid sinning against them and causing them to stumble. Give us a willingness to help those in need and be generous with our time, our energy, and our resources. Increase our enjoyment and desire to spend time with other Christians, especially those within this local church.

And by your Spirit, would our aim, our desire be to obey you and walk in the light. We confess that we do not find this easy. The temptation to love the world is great and we feel its pull. We are drawn to what it offers. It appeals to our appetites. It grabs our attention. It makes us feel important. Would we see clearly the work of the devil in this, seeking to draw us away from you, Lord. We plead with you, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one. And help us to see you as far better and more desirable than anything this world has to offer.

Father, we pray for strength and help to believe in Jesus, to love one another, to obey your commands, because we can’t do these things on our own. Thank you we have your Spirit. And we pray that as He helps us to grow and make progress in these areas of our lives, we would grow in confidence that we do know you and that we are your forgiven people.

Amen.

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