May 24, 2023 - John‬ ‭15:12-13

“This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:12-13 NLT

Lord, would you teach us how to love like you. Teach us how to go beyond just loving others with a big sacrificial moment. It is somewhat easy to lay aside our selfishness and make a big gesture of love on occasion; not that the big gestures of love are bad. Jesus, you made the ultimate sacrifice and literally laid down your life and died for us. Big gestures are wonderful, but it can be so much harder to live out the actions of surrendering our selfishness and putting others above us as a lifestyle of everyday living. Lord, you did that for us so well. You chose to come to earth and live among us out of love for us. And you chose day after day to live among us, again, because of your love for us. You still choose day after day to love us fully.

Teach us how to love like that. To sacrifice our selfishness as a lifestyle. To glorify you through our love for others as a lifestyle. Teach us to live our lives in a laid down manner. Jesus, teach us how to live our lives for others the way you did.

Jesus, we declare that we will live our lives not as a few great acts of love compiled together, but as people who live a lifestyle of laid down, sacrificial, selfless loving lifestyle like you. We determine we will live like you lived. Help us accomplish this. Open our eyes to the moments we can change this from a good thought into a reality. Open our eyes more to the way you love us and help us to learn from that. We are so grateful for how you love us and desire to pass that along to others.

In Jesus name, amen.