THE PRAYER THAT genuinely loved other Christians

How do you really feel about other people in your church? Are they either friends or just people you put up with? Or are they fellow workers in a shared mission? Or do they hold a very special place in your heart?

When Paul prayed for the Christians he knew, he didn’t do it out of duty, but out of love and joy. “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart.” Paul’s love wasn’t a warm, mushy feeling—that would be an unrealistic expectation for us to have. After all, the reality is that some people in our church will annoy us or see the world in a very different way.

Paul loved and prayed for fellow Christians because he saw them as joining with him in God’s grace to live for the ultimate purpose we all have: bringing glory and praise to God. Seeing them through God’s eyes, and knowing they had the same mission as him, helped him to long for them “with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

If you struggle to love others in your church, join Paul in praying for the grace-centred love that “abounds more and more” for the glory of God. For loving other believers from the heart is not something we can force; it’s a gift from God.