A prayer based on Matthew 23:37-40.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Lord God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit You alone are worthy of all our love. You alone are worthy of all our adoration and affection. There is no-one like You. There is nothing that compares to You. You have no rivals. You are mighty and powerful. You are glorious and majestic. What a delight, what a privilege, what grace it is, that we can call you our Lord and our God, for You have chosen to set Your love upon us; You have called us to be Your very own; You have brought us into Your family. And because You have first loved us, we can respond to You in love.

Help us to love You with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength. Forgive us for the times when we don’t do this. When we love other things, those You have created, more than You. Draw us back to You as our first love, we pray. By Your Spirit, may You increasingly capture our thoughts and attention. May You be our first thought in the morning and last at night. May we go through our day constantly aware of our need for You and of Your presence with us. Help us to recognise Your help and protection and provision throughout the day and thank You as we should. Help us to show that we love You by what we say, think, and do. As we learn more about You – Your character, Your work – would we be moved to love You more.

We are aware, that our love for You is seen in how we treat others. And that we are liars, if we say that we love You, yet hate others, because Jesus calls us not just to love one another, but to love our enemies too. So, help us to love our neighbours as ourselves. To consider others better than ourselves. To look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Holy Spirit, form in us the attitude of Christ. Thank You Jesus, for the example that You have given of what love is as You laid down Your life for us. Help us to think through how we might do the same today with those we meet and interact with.

Give us all the grace we need to obey the command to love You with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Amen.

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