Dangerous PrayersNäide

HELP ME LOVE OTHERS AS YOU DO

Often, when we pray, we either pray for ourselves or for others. However, one of the most dangerous prayers is joining the two, asking God to help us love others. The seemingly simple act of loving others is the summary of the Old Testament laws and the New Testament sacrificial act of Jesus.

Now, it's not so simple because we are called not just to love those who love us or those close to us, but to love everyone else. We are to love everyone, and Jesus calls us to love others just as he loved. An impossible challenge on top of an impossible task. How, then, are we to even start? The simple answer is that we can't, at least not on our own.

This is where prayer comes in. We have to remember that there is no such thing as praying for the impossible, for all things are possible through God. Because of this, we can pray boldly for impossible things, such as loving others just as God loves us.

I'll finish this with one of my favorite quotes, "Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing." (Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson). Praying for and calling others to a kind of love we don't always exemplify does not prove us hypocrites, but rather fellow sinners doing their best to demonstrate salvation already freely given.

Jack Martin