Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. Ephesians 6:24
Dear Jesus, I need this benediction this morning more than I need oxygen and water, for what is life apart from your love? That I love you at all, is a work of your grace in my heart, and to love you with an undying love will require an endless supply of your grace. Only your everlasting love can generate and sustain a never-ending love in our hearts… in my heart.
Jesus, we love because you first loved us and gave yourself to be a propitiation and atonement for our sins on the cross. You didn’t lay down your life for deserving friends but for dastardly rebels, like me. And you’re actively loving us right now… without raised eyebrows, furrowed brow or crossed fingers. You really do love us unconditionally because, you’ve met every condition necessary for doing so. Your love for us is the one and only constant in our lives. Everything else changes. Everything else is subject to whim and fancy. Our brothers and sisters in heaven are more happy than we are, but they are not more loved than we are.
Unfortunately, Jesus, our love for you does ebb and flow. But may the cooling of our affections for you bother us more than the fragile economy… our broken relationships… concerns about our health… unexpected disappointments and betrayals, or anything else.
Jesus, don’t let us get used to status quo… middle class… business-as-usual love for you. If by the Holy Spirit we hear you saying to us this morning, “I hold this against you. You have forsaken your first love” (Rev. 2:4)… may it be received as a huge kiss from heaven. For it means you are pursing us… you love us… your desire is for us… your banner over us is love.
Jesus, that you are jealous for our love… for my love, is the greatest compliment you could possibly pay us. Restore to us the joy of being loved by you. Renew in us a love for you as our great and gracious Bridegroom. Release through us your incomparable loving-kindness, that the world may recognize us as your much loved disciples. So very Amen, we pray, in your glorious and loving name.