December 26, 2023 - Luke‬ ‭10:26-28

“Jesus replied, “What do you read in the Law? How do you understand it?” The religious scholar answered, “It states, ‘You must love the Lord God with all your heart, all your passion, all your energy, and your every thought. And you must love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus said, “That is correct. Now go and do exactly that and you will live.”” Luke 10:26-28 TPT

Lord, teach us how to love you with our heart, our emotions, our intellect, and everything that we are. We want to love you passionately. Let our energy be spent on continually going deeper into knowing you. Show us places in our lives where we waste our time and energy. We want you to be the thing that we daydream about. Be our first thought when we wake up and the last one when we go to sleep. Help us grow our love for you to this level. We want all that we are and all that we do to flow out of our love for you.

Show us how to love our neighbors like ourselves. Help us be willing to be uncomfortable so that others might be comfortable. Help us lay down our selfishness and prefer others above our own wants. Help us be the Good Samaritan who will stop for those in need. Give us a heart of compassion for others. Help us be willing to get out of our “comfort bubble” to see and be willing to get “messy” if necessary to love others. Help us to not just love those who are easy to love but help us love those that we must work to love or that it costs us something to love.

Lord, you were willing to get out of your comfort zone to come to earth and love us. You love us even when we are messy. You love us even when we hurt you. You love us when we don’t deserve it and when we don’t make it easy for you to love us. Teach us how to love like you. We want the world to know your love.

In Jesus name, amen.