1 Thessalonians 3:11–13 (ESV): 11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. 

Abba,

Love is not easy.

Oh, being loved is incredible!  Being the object of true, selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love is glorious!  The kind of love that you displayed by sending Jesus; that kind that Jesus displayed by submitting and going.  The kind of love that so willingly gave such a precious gift and that continues to follow it up with so much more….this kind of love humbles, shames, and delights us!

Being loved by others, in shadowy ways that reflect this kind of love in lesser ways, delights us.  The sacrifice of time, money, resource to serve us, meet our needs at the expense of the person’s own need.  When people give up something important and even needed for themselves in order to put the needs of others first, my needs first; yes, this is an incredible (but humbling) feeling.

But loving like that is not easy.

It costs.

What’s more, loving others whose attitudes, actions, and intents are not lovable is hard.  Loving others whose actions hurt is hard.

Loving others who do not reciprocate that love is hard.

Loving others who despise and reject us is hard.

Loving others who actually seek our harm; who desire to pay us evil is hard.

This is not easy.  

At times, it feels impossibly hard.

It is hard enough at times to sacrifice our own selfish desires to put another first, even when we like them.

It is hard enough to take up our cross, die to ourselves, and unselfishly choose for another’s highest good even when that person is deeply cherished by us.  Granted, Abba, it is less hard but the selfishness of the flesh which persists in us, makes even this hard.

Loving the hard ones, the obstinate ones, the unrepentant ones, the foolish ones, the hateful ones…this is so, so hard.

But then, one only has to look to the cross to understand just HOW hard it was for You to love like this…

Loving with your kind of love is wearying for the flesh.  Loving with your kind of love can drain us.  We are not you.  We do not have unlimited grace and strength.  At least not in ourselves.  Our strength and grace comes from you.  We DO have those unlimited resources IN YOU.

This makes loving well a supernatural act of grace as you work your will and might IN and THROUGH us for YOUR glory.

This kind of love, this AGAPE, selfless love; this unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good is an act of grace; a supernatural act that we are dependent upon you for.

Abba, teach us to love like you.

Impassion us to love like you.

Strengthen us to love like you.

Grace us to love like you.

May we not grow weary in loving.

May we not faint in our unselfishly choosing for other’s highest good.

You know our own tendency to weariness.

You know our own tendency to self dependence.

Mortify those tendencies in me.  Mortify those tendencies in us.

Fill me; fill us WITH YOURSELF.  Fill us with your Spirit.  Let your love flow through us to all who you permit our lives to come into contact with.  

Let not the strength of your love wain or fade.

Let not the potency of your love waver.

Let not the finiteness of our flesh hinder the glorious flow of your love through us.

Let us not grow weary in loving with your love.

May the love flowing through us be used to draw men to you.  

May it glorify the worth of your name.

May it increase our own delight of you.

May our lives and bodies be a vessel that unselfishly chooses for another’s highest good and reflect the rich and glorious worth  of your name and your love for us.