February 17, 2023 - Hebrews 12:14

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14 NIV

Holy Spirit, we ask for you to help us live out this verse. It isn’t easy to always make every effort to live in peace with everyone. Sometimes people can push our buttons so badly, and it can be so easy to lash out at them. Other times people can be downright rude or mean to us, and it can feel nearly impossible to respond to them in love. Jesus, you were such a great example of showing love when you had every reason to respond in another way. Give us your patience. Help us see others through your eyes. Teach us how to be people of peace. Help us learn to defuse tense situations and not add gasoline to the fire. Give us your wisdom to know what each person/situation needs in order to bring peace.

Holy Spirit, we also ask for your help to live a holy life. We definitely cannot accomplish this without your help. Speak to us and help us make wise choices. Help us choose to run in the opposite direction from sin and temptation. Increase our hatred for tolerating sin in our lives. When we recognize it help us to immediately ask for forgiveness and change our behavior. Then show us what we need to do to avoid that behavior again in the future. We praise you that this verse says that if we are holy, we will see you. Lord, we so want to see you. Seeing you is so worth living a holy life. We invite you to come and purify us. Open our eyes to sins that we don’t even notice in our lives. Show us the places where we are believing lies. Help us uproot those lies and any other negative thoughts that keep us from living out your kingdom way. Help us change our thoughts and actions so that they all bring you glory and push us towards holiness. We long to be able to draw close to and see you, our Lord.

In Jesus name, amen.