Love One Another

PRAYER PRACTICE

Cup Prayer—This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.

DAILY READING

1 John 3:11-24

REFLECTION

Love and Power

by Katie Borden

In our world, we seem to be having more and more conversations about power—and usually, those conversations end up focusing on how power destroys. We know the old adage: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Power in this world seems like a domination game: there is only so much of it to go around, so in order to protect myself and get ahead in life, I need to amass more  power so you end up with less. Then, I need to lord my power over you, lest you try to grasp my power back from me—lest I find myself rendered powerless.

The longer I live, the more I am convinced that we have all bought into a giant lie when we treat power like a fixed resource to be hoarded instead of a renewable and expandable force that can empower others rather than dominate. 

That kind of power looks like LOVE. 

Love is a power that is not lorded over others. It is a power that exerted for the purpose of seeing creation thrive. This is the power Jesus exercises. Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus did not use his power to his own advantage, but rather, “made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant.” This suffering servant used his power to forgive our sins and give us life in his name. THAT is power.

As I consider this compelling vision of power and love, I become more and more aware of how often I use any power I’m given to prop myself up. God is revealing to me how often I am tempted to tear down others in self-preservation. As the writer of 1 John reminds us, these are not actions that exhibit the love of God in our hearts. May we continue to ask him to turn us from our actions motivated by fear, selfishness, and sin, and to give us new hearts beating with the empowering, life-giving blood of the love of Christ.

Lord, make it so by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.