Prayer Tip: Eros and Agape--Making Love Last

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  Colossians 3:12-14 (NIV)

This Scripture is so simple, and yet, we all know, so difficult to do sometimes. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bearing with each other, forgiving one another, as the Lord forgives us. Those things are hard, against our nature sometimes, and often against the culture that surrounds us. How can we maintain that attitude of compassion and forgiveness?

When I want to feel peaceful, I listen to music. When I want to feel joyful, I get out into the sunshine and the beauty of creation. What can I do when I want to be compassionate, kind, full of humility, gentleness and patience, forgiving others in the way the Lord forgives me? The best way I know of to see others and feel about others the way God does, and love them the way God says, is to pray for them. I’ve discovered that the advice I received from a very wise woman years ago is the only way I can hope to come close to fulfilling the instructions in Colossians 3:12-14. It really is easier to see others the way God sees them if you are bringing them to God in prayer regularly and sincerely asking God to love them, care for them, heal them, and let them see God’s love through you. It’s really very hard to treat someone without love when you’ve been praying for them!

This is true in all of our relationships. Praying for someone by name and with intention opens a place in our hearts for God to do some healing and loving on us, too. It becomes easier to bar with each other and forgive when we are praying – not “God, please change so-and-so,” but this: