I had never been hurt so deeply. When I learned that my pastor-father had committed adultery, I was devastated. Through a long, unfolding story, my dad later came to repentance beside my mother’s deathbed, but only after he had left her and married another. Later, his new wife also repented and sought our forgiveness, which we gave.
It was easy to love my dad, for I had loved him all my life. I forgave my new step-mother, but I did not love her. Even though I was a 32-year-old pastor, I had no desire to even see her. But God had other plans and a deeper purpose.
“We’re coming through town,” my dad said over the phone. “Could we see you?”
For the first time as an adult I realized there was a person I simply could not love on my own. I saw the absolute incapacity of mere human love. But God reminded me that He lived in me and that He is love. I remembered that His love can be “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 5:5, KJV).
And so, I prayed: “Lord, You live in me. You are all the love I need. Here is my body for Your use. Flow Your love through me.”
When I saw her, in one of the greatest illustrations of the reality of God I’ve ever experienced, I was overwhelmed with love for her. And I’ve continued to love her for more than 30 years.
Needing Real Love
In the greatest chapter on the greatest thing, Paul proclaims that love is the highest attribute. He defines its necessity in absolutes.
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:1–3, NASB, emphasis mine).
The Apostle reminds us that without this most important thing, all we are is nothing, all we do is nothing, and all we receive from all we do is nothing. What a tragedy to come to the end of a busy life, stand before God, and realize all we did produced no real results.
This year’s National Day of Prayer theme is “Love One Another.” How can we lead others to pray in ways that loving one another becomes a reality across our nation?
Getting Love Out
As prayer leaders, one of our roles is to help others realize that the Spirit inside them provides all the love they need. The issue is not getting love in but getting love out. Here are three principles we can teach our congregations about the believer’s role as an instrument of God’s love:
- Recognize God-ordained opportunities for love’s release. It’s easy to love your friends. But we have a greater witness when we love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us and say all manner of evil against us falsely.
These are not intrusions to the Christian life, but God-ordained moments for the God within you to show off His love! In prayer, embrace each opportunity to manifest His passion to a watching world. - Pray for love in the body of Christ. The greatest damage to the Kingdom of God in our nation occurs when we who profess love do not show it among God’s people. Yet, shouldn’t that be where we most easily experience and prominently portray it?
Believers who are walking in love disagree agreeably. They give each other the benefit of the doubt. They never
gossip or slander but deal with conflicts in biblical ways. They have a heart for preserving the “unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).
Pray daily for the churches in your community. Ask God for a revival of love that will explode in affection for each other before a watching world. - Pray for love in action. If love is flowing, we will witness to those far from God and we will serve them. Let’s pray that God will release so much love, through the Church in America, that we are compelled to serve those around us in every imaginable way.
Praying Heaven Down
Jonathan Edwards described heaven as a “world of love.” Imagine a place where all those you meet love you perfectly and you love them perfectly. Where you love God completely. Where you know and understand His perfect love fully.
Now, imagine His Kingdom coming and His will being done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the prayer Jesus told us to pray. And it’s the prayer this year that can help us love those we can’t love on our own. It’s the prayer that can change our nation.
BILL ELLIFF is senior teaching and lead pastor of The Summit Church in Little Rock, AR. He is also on the leadership team of OneCry.
