Prayer Tip--Culture, Politics and Religion
Daily Scripture
1 John 4:7-11
Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
John doesn’t waste words: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8). That’s the center of it all. And if that’s true, then every day we face a choice: will we live in that love or not?
Love isn’t a mood that drifts in like the weather. It’s a choice. John tells us: “Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another” (4:11). God made the first move, and now it’s our turn. Love is active, not passive. Or as John puts it, “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action” (3:18). In other words, love rolls up its sleeves.
And here’s the beautiful thing: when we choose love, something shifts. John says it drives out fear (4:18)—because fear can’t live where love has taken root. It turns isolation into belonging: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another” (3:14). And it keeps us grounded when life gets loud and divided, because love doesn’t just whisper nice words; it shows up with casseroles, with forgiveness, with patience, with laughter, with shoulders to lean on. Love gets up off the couch and does something.
Love also makes us bold. John wants us to be so sure of God’s love that we stop living like people who are trying to earn it. “We love because God first loved us” (4:19). Our love is always a response, not a performance. Which means even when our attempts are messy, imperfect, or awkward, they still count—because they’re part of God’s heartbeat moving through us.
Prayer
Prayer Practice: The Lovingkindness Ripple (a Daily Yes)
Each morning this week, try this: imagine dropping a pebble into a pond. The first ripple is yourself: “God’s love is with me. Today I choose to love.” The next ripple goes outward: “God’s love is with my family. I choose to love them.” Then wider: “God’s love is with my neighbors… with my coworkers… even with that person who cut me off in traffic.” (Yes, them too.)
By the time you’re done, you’ve said “yes” to God’s love in widening circles until the whole world is floating in it. And here’s the secret: those ripples don’t just move outward—they come back to you.
John reminds us: “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (4:7). That’s the daily yes. That’s the ripple. That’s how we live as God’s beloved.
GPS Insights
Debbie Dellinger
This week's prayer tip is by Debbie Dellinger, who serves as a Pastor of Connection and Care at Resurrection, Leawood and as National Team Leader for The Caring Congregation.
