New Wineskins 13 of 21 – Creating in You a Love for All

Ask the Holy Spirit to create in you a love for all your “neighbors” today:

 A new commandment I give unto you,” Christ said, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34. What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly practiced! In the church of God today brotherly love is sadly lacking. Many who profess to love the Saviour do not love one another. Unbelievers are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the defects in character, the inconsistencies in action. Let Christians not make it possible for the enemy to point to them and say, Behold how these people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another. Christians are all members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very close and tender should be the tie that binds them together. (AA 550)

Dear Heavenly Father,

As I kneel before You today, I acknowledge my lack of love for my brothers and sisters.  I have been partial to some, ignored others, or even criticized them behind their backs.  Sometimes, I just think badly about someone for the most trivial reason that I allow to rerun in my mind.  I do not want to be the cause for the enemy to gain ground in my or any other life, dear Lord!.  Do not let me dishonor You, O God, in the way I treat and talk about others!  May I see You in each person, for You say that the way I treat “the least” is essentially the way I treat You.  That is sobering, God, when I consider how little I think of some people!  God, transform me so that I can even love and pray for an enemy!

I thirst for You; I come to You, asking and believing that You will pour on me Your promised Holy Spirit. I want to drink deep at Your well of salvation, so that out of my heart will flow rivers of living water. Fill my heart with Your divine sympathy; unseal the “sealed fountain of earnest, Christ-like love” in me. I want to know what it really means to abide in You, to be so full of You that I cannot be disturbed by even the smallest slight. Help me not to misinterpret others’ words and motives but to be kind, pitiful, tenderhearted, forgiving.  I want to represent Your character to others” around me as well as to the cloud of witnesses in Your universe!  I would like to be like Job:  someone You can brag about!

And God, right now, bring someone to mind whom You are asking me to call or pull aside in church today.  Give me the courage to make the first step toward mending that relationship.  I desire the promised fruit of an untroubled heart, full of the peace that only You can give.

I also take this opportunity to pray for every church represented in this email list.  May love abound in each place of worship this Sabbath.  May every visitor feel welcome; may I be the first to reach across a pew and greet someone new to me today, whether a visitor or a regular.  I pray for close and tender ties to bind our people together.  Sanctify us by this great truth, the commandment to love one another, dear God, so that we may be an answer to Jesus’ prayer for Your church to be ONE AS YOU ARE ONE–Father, Son, and Spirit–so the world will know and believe that Jesus was sent of God and that

YOU truly ARE LOVE!  In the name of the One who loved me and laid down His life for me, I pray, Amen.

Read John 14, asking God for the indwelling of the “Helper” today to give you the boldness of reconciliation.

John 7:37-39; Is. 12:3; John 15:1; COL 417; AH 214-5; John 14:27; John 17:17, 23