March 2, 2022 - 1 Thessalonians 5:15

“See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.” 1 Thessalonians 5:15 NLT

Lord, this is something that is so easy to say, but can, in reality, be so hard to walk out. Please help us with this. Teach us how to love others the way you love. Teach us how to forgive and forget the way you forgive and forget. Show us if we are holding a grudge against someone instead of fully forgiving. Show us if we are “keeping count” of all that someone has done wrong against us. Help us always be quick to forgive and trust you to defend us. We want to keep our hearts soft towards you and others and not build walls to protect us. We would rather remove ourselves from a situation than to allow ourselves to get jaded or have a hard heart towards someone. Give us such wisdom on how to handle these type situations. Give us your hearts for those that are hard to love so that we can extend love even if evil is what is extended to us.

Lord, we really want to be a shining example of your love and goodness to the world around us. Please grow us in this area. Help us remove pride from our life that needs to be right or defend ourselves. Help us learn to walk a truly humble and righteous life. Jesus, I love reading about how you handled the Pharisees in the Bible. They were constantly “attacking” you. They wanted to trip you up or trap you into doing something that would cause you issues. They wanted to tear you down in front of the crowds in a manipulative way. You handled those situations with so much wisdom. Instead of tripping you up, you would turn things around and de-escalate things. Give us that kind of wisdom. Teach us how to respond to you. Let us tune into your voice and walk in obedience. Teach us to extend love like you do. Jesus, make us more like you.

In Jesus name, amen.