A Prayer For You Today

Dear friends,

I recently came across an opinion piece that was telling and helpful to me. The writer was speaking to a 10- year-old neighbor who told me she was going to stop being friends with a classmate who cheated at handball. Trying to explain to their neighbor that the friendship doesn’t need to end, they explained grace. Grace is when we make a mistake, and the other person chooses to keep loving us.

We long for love and acceptance independent of our performance, and God has accomplished this in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

A prayer for you today.

Dear Lord Jesus, it’s both settling and centering to begin this day with the assurance of Your acceptance—Your radical and complete welcome. You know everything about me, and yet you still want and delight in me. You know my failures, foolishness, and faithlessness; and yet You totally accept me.

When I confess my sins, I don’t inform You of anything You don’t already know. In fact, I’m probably aware of only 3 or 4 percent of my actual sins. It’s absolutely overwhelming to be this known, this accepted, and this loved.

I’m the immature younger brother You welcomed home. I’m the self-righteous elder brother You constantly pursue. I’m the one lying at Your feet others would stone, but You have loved. I’ve been up in the tree with Zacchaeus and down in the depths with Peter, and You have accepted me.

But here comes the challenging part, Jesus. As You’ve accepted us, You’re calling us to accept others. I’ll need all the grace You promise to love like that, for there are certain people—believers and non-believers alike- whom I struggle to accept, or even stay present in the same room. My pride and prejudices, hurts, and commitment to a pain-free heart just take over at times.

Jesus, I need a bigger gospel heart and more gospel wisdom if I’m going to make headway in this calling. Please help me show kindness without compromising my convictions. Teach me the difference between essential and nonessential matters…Free me from the limitations of my perspective, the ingrown-ness of my theological tribe, and the insecurities of my comfort zone. Liberate me from insincere niceness and my penchant for rightness. Make me a spontaneous lover of people.

Let me remember that God’s promise to bring to completion the good work You began in me also applies to all of His children. Burn the conviction indelibly into my heart: it brings You praise when I work hard at accepting others as You accept me. So very Amen I pray, in Your matchless and merciful name.

A prayer of Scott Smith

God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Pastor, Joe