Filthy Rags,
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love casts out fear.
For fear has to do with punishment,
and whoever fears has not been perfected
in love.
1 John 4:18.
Glorious Heavenly Father,
On our knees, we humbly submit ourselves before You this refreshing morning to rededicate our love and lives to You, and to declare that Your Son, Jesus Christ, is our precious Lord and Saviour. We love You, Lord.
Lord, we are contentious in loving You as our God. We don't want to give up all our worldly acquisitions. We are complete failures in properly honoring You with all the love of our mind, heart and soul. Please help us by guiding us in the the proper manner to love and honor You, as we never want to fail You. Teach us to worship You from the love hidden deep in our hearts.
Lord, we struggle in properly loving our neighbors. Lord, we are irritated by, and critical of, our neighbors for no genuine or valid reason. We gossip about them to build up ourselves. We judge them with the false belief that we are better than them. We believe we are better Christians than our neighbors. We don't pray with them or for them. We don't invite them to church. We do not engage in neighborly sharing. We are ashamed because we ignore them with a self-righteous attitude. Lord, as admitted sinners we confess that we are total failures at properly loving our neighbors.
Lord, we fight immensely against loving our enemies. We are significantly worse at loving our enemies than our neighbors. Lord, we harbor evil thoughts of our enemies and are complete failures in loving them. We have a driving desire to seek out our own revenge. We are sorry because we know revenge is reserved only for You. Sometimes we rail at You for imposing the impossible requirement of loving our enemies during our journey. This troubles us greatly as we know You require this of us to move forward in the spiritual realm and closer to the throne room. Lord, to fulfill loving our enemies we boldly request Your assistance by allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us by leading us to love our enemies in the manner You require. Lord, we raise up in prayer all of our enemies. We sorry for anything we have done to offend anyone to make them our enemy. Lord, we ask for a change of heart so we cease being the enemy.
Lord, we raise up in prayer all of our victims and their families,
victims of our thoughts,
victims of our actions,
victims of our omissions,
victims of our emotions,
victims of our convictions,
victims of our frustrations,
victims of our irritations,
victims of our rudeness,
victims of our meaness,
victims of our bitterness,
victims of our stubbornness,
victims of our anger,
victims of our bias,
victims of our hatred,
victims of our prejudice,
victims of our pride,
victims of our ego,
victims of our insensitivity,
victims of our inconsideration,
victims of our intolerance,
victims of our hypocrisy,
victims of our selfishness,
victims of our judgements,
victims of our aggression,
victims of our greed,
victims of our hostility,
victims of our envy,
victims of our negativity,
victims of our cynicism,
victims of our ignorance,
victims of our twisted impressions,
victims of our shameful behavior.
Lord, we are extremely sorry for this vast wasteland of victims. Please forgive us. Lord, we promise You, with all of our hearts we promise You, to focus and apply ourselves in trying harder to create less victims in our daily interactions and deeds. Lord, please transform our hearts with Your loving nature so we cease the victimization of all those we encounter. Please teach us to love instead of victimizing. Thank you, Lord, for hearing this prayer from an abusive victimizer.
We love You, Lord. We invite You into our hearts to examine us, to purify us, to cleanse us, to write Your law on our hearts, fill us with the Holy Spirit, transform us to do Your will and glorify the Father. These things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our precious Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Humbly in prayer,
His most unworthy servant.