A prayer based on Romans 5:6-8.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Our God, It is truly amazing to know that You love us. It is incredible that we can hear You say to us, through Your Word, “I love you”. Especially as there is no reason for You to. By nature, there is nothing loveable about us. There is no reason why You should feel this way about us.

We were ungodly; those who had no time for You; who wanted nothing to do with You. We were sinners; rebellious to Your will and way; constantly failing to hit your target for our lives; missing the mark; breaking Your law; transgressing Your boundaries. We were powerless; facing Your judgment; heading towards the fires of hell for eternity; and there was nothing we could do about this.

We were helpless, and without hope. Yet You chose to extend Your love to us; You so loved the world. Not just the polite people of the world; the nice people; the respectable people. You so loved all kinds of people, even the vilest offender, and demonstrated this by giving Your only Son.

We praise You that Christ was willing to die for every kind of person in the world. For the ungodly. For sinners. We thank You that He was willing to die for us. To save us. To bring us out of the place of danger. To rescue us from the wrath to come, so that we do not need to experience for ever God’s anger. We thank You that now through faith in Him we can have our sins taken away; we can have a relationship with You the Holy God, and be adopted into Your family with eternal life.

Father, forgive us for those times when we doubt that You really do love us. For when we think you couldn’t love us, because we’re too bad; because we’ve done too many awful things.

And Holy Spirit, help us when we feel this way to look to Jesus. To fix our eyes on Him, the God-man. Who having been betrayed, abandoned, arrested, slandered, beaten, punched, kicked, whipped, heard the crowd shout crucify him, felt flesh torn from his skill, suffered exhaustion, experienced nails bashed into His hands and feet, is left hanging on a cross. Who is exposed, naked, mocked, bleeding, dying, and punished by God until there was no more penalty left to pay for our sins. And would this strengthen our confidence that You really do love us. Help us to grasp more and more, to comprehend Your love in Christ, to delight in it, to appreciate it, and to adore You for it. And most of all to love You as those who have been first loved by You.

Amen.

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