Saturday and Sunday, January 28-29—John 15: 9-17
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
- praise God for His love of the unlovable in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
- pray that we grow in awe and appreciation for the love God has lavished upon us in His Beloved Son
- pray that the fruit of love would adorn our lives as a grace of the gospel, to the glory of God
- pray that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves
- pray that as we grow deeply in the Vine of Life, we would learn to love in the selfless, sacrificial, sustained way our Savior has loved us
- pray that the Spirit would show us where we have forsaken our first love and lead us to remember the love of our Lord, to repent of our sin, and to recover our former zeal and joy and love in Him
- pray that we would learn to love by being patient, kind, giving, forgiving—that our love may not be merely in word but in deed
