“Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” (Eph.6:24)
Dear Jesus, this one verse pretty well sums up the whole of the Christian life—its sum and substance, wonder and joy. We are to love you with an undying, ever-growing, passionate love. And that is the one thing the devil doesn’t want us to do, because he is always trying to lead us away from our “simple, pure, whole-hearted devotion to you” (2Cor.11:3).
This is where the “grace upon grace” you promise us comes in (Jn.1:16). From beginning through forever—our love for you is entirely a work and gift of grace. We love you because you first loved us—both living and dying for us. We love you today, and will love you all the way Home, because Abba will complete his work in us (Phil.1:6). But our love for you can intensify as we come more fully alive to “the length and width and height and depth” of your love for us (Eph.3:18). Do this for us and in us, Jesus.
Truly, your love for us is the one constant in our lives—and it’s a dynamic, not static, constant. Everything else changes. Everything else is subject to whim and fancy, ebb and flow, earning and effort. Abba loves love us just as much as he loves you—as hard as that is for us to believe.
May the cooling of our love for you bother us more than the fragile economy, political insanity in the world, and every relational challenge we face in life. Do not let us get used to a status quo, ho-hum, lame and tame love for you, Jesus. Pour the rocket fuel of your Spirit, beauty, and grace upon us. So Very Amen.