A Prayer For Love

May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people.

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, his love and concern for them were apparent in every word. When he prayed for them, he asked the Lord to make their love for one another overflow. Paul prayed that the Thessalonian church might become a loving, supporting community of faith. The strong, silent, loner Christian didn’t fit into Paul’s understanding of how God works among his people.

We all need one another. God uses other believers to strengthen us and make us holy. As you pray for strength to be faithful to God, you should expect his answer to come through those believers who worship every Sunday with you. Likewise, you should earnestly pray that God might use you to strengthen other believers.

• O God, help my love to grow and overflow to other believers . . .