Reset: Day 15 - Living Hope Clarksville

Day 15
LOVE

Reminder: Yesterday we renewed our resolve to obey. We follow our Savior’s every word because we know obedience turns prayer into an exhilarating adventure.

Prayer is all about love. Reduce prayer to its fundamental essence and you’re left with love. A prayer Reset is a return to our first love (Rev 2:4).

Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father’s house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your Lord, worship Him. (Ps 45:10-11)

Scripture describes Jesus as our heavenly Bridegroom and us as His bride. It’s love language, and it’s expressed beautifully in Psalm 45.

Clearly, the love that flows between the King and His bride is romantic. The unique quality that distinguishes romantic love from other kinds of love is the element of desire. In romance, there’s strong desire to be together. We just can’t seem to get enough of each other.

PRAY. Express your desire for your Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus. Tell Him how much you want to be with Him and see Him. Beg for Him to return. Let love flow. His Spirit is empowering you to love Him back with the same God-sized affections with which He loves you, because it takes God to love God.

The secret place is a womb. It’s where love is nurtured and grown. Yes, love is grown. When it comes to love nobody is an expert—we all need to grow in our capacity to receive and express His love. We’re always searching for ways to give more of our hearts. Just as fire is never satisfied (Prov 30:16), the fiery passions of divine love are always looking for greater abandonment. More love, always more.

See how Jesus described the love we share:

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love… This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:9, 12)

Jesus said He loves us as the Father loves Him. What an amazing love that must be! Then He said that we are to love one another with that very same love.

So the love that flows between the Father and Son is the model for the love that flows between us and Christ, and then between us and others.

We thought it was enough to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 19:19), but Jesus raised the bar. He said we are to love our neighbor in the same way the Father loves the Son.

How can we love like this? Only by coming to the womb of the secret place and receiving His power to love.

PRAY. Launch on a quest to explore what He meant by, “Abide in My love.” (John 15:9) 

Consider the amazing love described in Romans:

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying… For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh. (Rom 8:38-9:3)

Paul ended Romans 8 by describing the “Mount Everest” of all loves—the love of God from which nothing can separate us.

Then, in the verses that immediately follow (the chapter break is an artificial separation), Paul described what the highest love for our fellow man looks like. He had such a godly love for his fellow Jews that he was willing to lay down not simply his earthly life but his eternal life for them. He could wish that he were eternally accursed and separated from Christ if it could mean the salvation of his fellow Jews whom he loved.

The Romans 8 love of God had given him Romans 9 love for his fellow countrymen.

PRAY! Oh Lord, fill me with this love. Give me the heights of Romans 8 love. May this love so fill my heart that I might gain Romans 9 love for my fellow countrymen. Give me this love!

May your prayer life always rest steadfastly on a foundation of love.

As you leave your secret place, seek to nurture this flame of love all day long. Do it all for love!

← Reset: Day 14 Reset: Day 16 →