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This is the audio from the February 21, 2023 live social media broadcast of encouragement and prayer by Impact Prayer Ministry’s director, Tom Lemler.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35 (NIV)
As we continue a focus on being made new in Christ, I bring back a prayer focus I first shared a few years ago — a new way to love. This week we will spend some time praying about the love God has expressed toward us and about how we can live in such a way that we share it with others. God has always instructed His people to love, so it must have been a little confusing to the disciples when Jesus told them He was giving them a new command — a command to love one another. I believe the new part of the command, new because it had not been seen in such a clear way ever before, was to love as Jesus loved.
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:31 (NIV)
As you pray this week, ask God to help you evaluate how you love. Pray that you would focus more on loving your neighbor as God would want than on trying to define who that neighbor is — or isn’t. Pray that you would be the neighbor that shows love to all those in need. Pray for the courage to love others in a way that values them.
You can find the live video feeds of these encouragement and prayer times on Impact Prayer Ministry’s Facebook page.
In prayer,
Tom