{"id":2911,"date":"2016-05-12T14:45:02","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T18:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2911"},"modified":"2016-05-12T14:45:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T18:45:02","slug":"a-prayer-for-faith-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-for-faith-and-love.html","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for Faith and Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (Gal. 5:6)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Fight the good fight of faith. (1 Timothy 6:12)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If faith expresses itself in love, then we must become experts at love to become experts at faith. Note the times Jesus applauded the faith of the people he healed and set free. It works that way for us, too. Love is a double-edged sword; it not only blesses the people in our path\u00a0(not to mention\u00a0ourselves) but it hones and perfects our faith as well. Let\u2019s become excellent in the gift of loving others and in so doing, become experts in our faith.<\/p>\n

Father, <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you for giving me encouragement to fight the good fight of faith. It\u2019s a good fight because it\u2019s a battle I win by love \u2013 not my love, but the love you give me. Therefore, I choose to love people today by forgiving everyone who offends me. Whenever a painful memory arises from my past, I will once again forgive those\u00a0individuals who did me wrong saying, \u201cFather forgive them, for they don\u2019t know what they are doing.\u201d Even if I think they truly did know what they were doing, even if I am certain their actions were intentional to hurt me, betray me, abuse me, or hinder me in any way, I still borrow Your words and issue forgiveness because ultimately they did not know the full extent of the harm they were causing. Hanging in agony, Jesus forgave his murderers, for He knew that resurrection power was right around the bend, and it is right around the bend for me as well! So today I shall walk by faith, standing strong, never wavering, never doubting for a minute. I will walk in love moment by moment, encounter by encounter. I will forgive 70 times 7 times a day if necessary. I choose to be grateful! I choose to focus on Your redemption and take my eyes myself, my trauma, the injustice I\u2019ve suffered, and all my thoughts of victimization. Moment by blessed moment I choose to recalibrate my focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith and on His resurrection power that is at work in me today.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In Jesus\u2019 Name, Amen.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is important is faith expressing itself in love. (Gal. 5:6) Fight the good fight of faith. (1 Timothy 6:12) Without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6) If faith expresses itself in love, then we must become experts at love to become experts at faith. Note the times Jesus applauded the faith…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[293,315,450,1730,1731,86,1741,1117,1732],"class_list":["post-2911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-abuse","tag-betrayal","tag-faith","tag-faith-and-love","tag-fighting-the-good-fight-of-faith","tag-forgiveness","tag-love","tag-trauma","tag-victimization"],"yoast_head":"\nA Prayer for Faith and Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-for-faith-and-love.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prayer for Faith and Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is important is faith expressing itself in love. 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