Prayer Tip: Affection and Intimacy
Daily Scripture
Genesis 2:24-25 (NRSV), Song of Songs misc. verses (CEB), 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6a (CEB)
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
M: Look at you—so beautiful, my dearest! 1:15a (CEB)
W: Look at you—so beautiful, my love! 1:16a (CEB)
M: You have captured my heart with one glance from your eyes. 4:9b (CEB)
W: I belong to my lover and my lover belongs to me. 6:3b (CEB)
W: Set me as a seal over your heart…for love is as strong as death. 8:6a (CEB)
God’s will is that your lives are dedicated to him. This means that you stay away from sexual immorality and learn how to control your own body in a pure and respectable way. Don’t be controlled by your sexual urges like the Gentiles who don’t know God. No one should mistreat or take advantage of their brother or sister in this issue.
Prayer Tip
by Jennifer Creagar, Community Assistance Coordination Director
1 Thessalonians 4:3-6a, The Message
…We ask you – URGE is more like it – that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body, not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters.
One of my favorite prayers is “Lord, teach me what I already know.”
I think that’s what Paul was trying to communicate to the Thessalonians. We already know that, when it comes to the difference between enjoying the gift of sex in the way God designed, and destroying the bodies and spirits of everyone involved. The standard is simple. Does it appreciate and give dignity to your body and your life? Does it take away the dignity or the concerns of others, or ignore them in pursuit of your own desires and plans? Can you honestly and without question say that what you are doing pleases God and results in a living, spirited dance, unburdened by guilt, pain or fear for everyone involved?
Lord, teach me what I already know.
Help me to see you first, and seek to please you, first.
Guard me from any action that would hurt my brothers and sisters, destroy my dignity or anyone else’s, or cause guilt and pain.
Lord, teach me what I already know.
Let my whole life be a living, spirited dance, to the joyful music of living in your love and your will.
Amen.
