Praying Our Way to Love

John3:16; Matthew 5:43-48

“He prayeth best, who loveth best, all things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.”

This is a quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It is an epic poem about the journey of life from the depths of ruin to a resurrected life of meaning and restoration. He wrote this poem when he was twenty-five and Coleridge’s life would follow suit as he fell into a life of drug addiction, lust, and depression and then ultimately renewed his faith in Christ finding his true joy and contentment in Him.

Love, for Coleridge, was a struggle. The search for love is what led him to his despair and addiction because he was, as the country song said, “looking for love in all the wrong places.” It was only when he returned to his first love that he was able to love again. He arrived at this place of rest through prayer and repentance.

Who of us does not struggle to love? The challenge of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is to love our enemies. This is probably the most difficult task asked of us next to martyrdom. To love someone who curses us, uses us, and persecutes us would be a challenge for even the best of saints. But to be a true disciple it must be done, and it can be done! It is achieved through prayer.

I have found in my walk with the Lord that the best way to love an enemy is to pray for them. It is through prayer and communion with God that you and I begin to see people as He sees them. Our fallen nature tempts us to look at them in hate, judgment, and vengeance. But to see as Christ sees is to look upon them in love, pity, and forgiveness. I think this is why Jesus prayed as much as He did. Although He was loved and adored by a few, He was hated and despised by many. Even in our world today this continues to be the case. We are seeing more rejection, mockery, and hatred towards Christ and Christianity. But John 3:16 is still the central message of the Gospel today and the ones we look on in anger and frustration, He looks on them as poor, pitiful, and in need of redemption.

So, in light of this, prayer is much more essential than we lend credit to. It’s more than a method of feeling good about us, it also helps us in feeling good about others. Or should I say, “feeling godly towards others.”

Pastor Robby