Tag: love

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Know My Enemies – And to Love Them

God of Love,
You don’t just call me to be a neighbor and to love my neighbors, but also to love my enemies. While I may tend to think of extreme examples when I think about who my enemies are, give me a more discerning perspective on who you’re really calling me to love. You’re calling me to love my obnoxious family member who gets a kick out of ruffling everyone’s feathers. You’re calling me to love my blowhard coworker, who feels compelled to share a loudmouth opinion about everything. You’re calling me to love the person who, for reasons I cannot even explain, irritates me just by being in the same room. You’re calling me to love the person who is habitually unkind and downright cruel to others. You’re calling me to love my spouse, even when my needs aren’t being met. It isn’t easy to love such people, Lord! You, of all people, should know, for you love even me. Let that truth empower my love for others – even my enemies.  

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Bless Marriages With Your Gift of Sex

God of Marriage,
Sex is your gift that you established as a blessing to be enjoyed between a husband and wife. You call both single and married people to battle against sexual temptation and to abstain from engaging in sex outside of marriage. But your gift of sex can also be abused within marriage whenever it is neglected or avoided by one spouse without mutual consent. When your gift of sex is weaponized or leveraged by one spouse against the other, it can cause tremendous damage. When spouses forget or refuse to acknowledge that in marriage, their bodies are not their own, but belong to each other, sex mutates from a loving act of service to a self-centered, self-serving, mess.

For those marriage relationships that have legitimate challenges that hinder or prevent sexual intimacy, I pray for you to patiently guide those spouses as they work through those issues. Help all people – married and single – to honor marriage and sex by keeping the marriage bed pure. Richly bless married couples with healthy and happy sex lives. Through them, provide a sanctified and refreshingly positive view of sex in a world that has spoiled it so much.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Fight Sexual Temptation

God of Grace,
When we diminish your designed purposes for sex, it shouldn’t surprise us that our twisted perspective ends up turning your gift into a temptation. I am not only susceptible to the snare of sex, but am also guilty of sinning against myself and others in my misuse and abuse of it. I am left with nowhere to turn but to your cross for forgiveness. Assure me that there alone do I find gracious cleansing for all sin – including every sexual sin I’ve ever committed. 

Then, having been renewed and restored, equip me with the spirit necessary to fight the battle against sexual temptation. Guard my heart from being drawn into any situation that would allow a spark of temptation to flare up into a raging fire. Help me have the self-awareness to recognize when and where this particular temptation is tailored to my own unique weaknesses, and the discernment and discipline to avoid those scenarios. If I consistently fail to put up a fight on my own against this temptation, give me the courage to seek help from others who genuinely want to support me in these struggles. Do not let me allow my failures to suffocate me in this area. My sins do not define me or change my identify in you, therefore build me up with more of your grace and create in me the desire to live a pure and holy life for you.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Properly View Your Gift of Sex

God of Love,
Sex is all around me, everywhere, all the time, and with it, the temptation to treat it like any other pleasure that is up for grabs whenever it is desired. But you didn’t create it to be treated like some recreational activity available for anyone to engage in at any time, according to their own personal preferences or standards. Rather, you intended for it to be a uniquely special experience exclusively between a husband and wife, safeguarded within the bond of marriage. Although I live in a society that doesn’t see it that way, help me to honor it in accordance with your plans for it. 

Although sex is itself physical, keep clear for me its spiritual connection so that I am able to tap into your Spirit’s strength to battle my thoughts and urges. And, while the abuse of your gift of sex will always cause damage and harm to hearts and lives, let grace and your gospel be for me the driving force behind my desire to honor it. I don’t live under the fear and slavery of the law, but in freedom that longs to walk in your ways. Guide me to love you by treasuring your precious gift of sex in the way that you intend. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Eagerly Serve My Neighborhood and Community

Selfless Savior,
The entirety of your law is summed up in one word: love. We know full well that we are called to love you above all else. We easily forget, however, that our love for you is also expressed in how we love our neighbor. While anyone in need is included in the category of neighbor, let us not overlook our literal neighbors – those living next to and around us in our neighborhoods.

Help us to love our neighbor and our community as you have loved us. Let us never become weary of carrying out good works on their behalf. Whether those works come in the form of informal service to a neighbor in an unexpected or sudden moment of need, or through formal volunteer service in community organizations and efforts, use believing men everywhere to build up and bless their communities. In these ways, let not only your goodness, but also your gospel, spread and be known. Make me the kind of neighbor that everyone wishes would live next door. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Fix My “Me First”

God of Grace,
Your grace is never without effect! It brought me out of darkness into your wonderful light. It has forever changed how I see myself and my time in this world. We are all born into this world with a “me first” mentality that puts self before everyone else. But your grace turns that “me first” mentality into a mantra for Christian living that is eager to take initiative in serving others.

Rather than looking for reasons I can’t or excuses to get me out of meeting someone else’s needs, I ask “Why not me?” If I can, when I can, lead me to proactively love others, not waiting to be asked or pausing in hopes that others step in first. Infuse me with the gospel and your grace to instill in me the drive to jump in and radically love others. Free me from the selfish “me first” and replace it with a selfless “me first” that finds great joy and fulfillment in loving others – for this is yet one more way I can express my love for you. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Evangelically

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving others, you aren’t merely concerned that we love others, but also why we love them. When we go through the motions and treat our service to others like a checklist that needs to be completed or a deed that needs to get done, we miss the point. I want to lead others evangelically – that is, motivated and empowered by the power of the gospel, the good news of God’s grace that we are saved through faith in you alone.

The gospel filters how I view others – as souls for whom you died, and as individuals loved and treasured by you. When I forget this, loving others takes a back seat to serving self. But when I remember this, how can I do anything but love those loved by you? Help me to remember that my loving service to others may be the first step that eventually results in their experiencing your love through the joy of the gospel. Finally, in order to love others evangelically, create in me the constant hunger to be personally filled up with the gospel regularly, so that it naturally flows through me to others.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Others Voluntarily

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. While you command us to love others, it isn’t the threat of punishment or the fear of consequence behind that command that drives us, but rather your fierce and freeing love for us that compels us. By your perfect obedience and the outpouring of grace and forgiveness that flows from the cross, we are no longer slaves under the law.

Therefore, in this new life of freedom, I ask that you create in me the genuine desire to voluntarily seek out opportunities to love others. Make my will like yours, seeking to lead others voluntarily in love. Remove from me all reluctance and resentment tied to your command to love others, and replace those sentiments with eagerness and excitement to display your love to others through my loving service. As I voluntarily render this loving service to others, use my example to initiate and inspire waves of love to continue spreading everywhere, so that believers everywhere help make your love become more and more prevalent all over the world.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Love Others (more than myself!)

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. When it comes to loving myself, I’m a natural – I was born into this world thinking that I’m the most important person in it! And, as much as I try convince myself that the reason it’s so difficult to love others has more to do with them, the real reason it’s hard is that I simply love myself too much. Forgive me, and turn my love away from self and onto others, just as you did perfectly.

Leading others in love is truly challenging. It’s easy for me to make it more about how I prefer to show or speak love into them than about what they really need. Help me let go of my insistence on loving others on my terms and free me to better love others on theirs. Whether it’s the biological family under my roof, my church family, or my neighborhood and community, opportunities abound to love others. Guide me to manage my time in a way that allows me to love others whenever doors open to do so each day. Grant me the joy of seeing the impact you can make when you use me to lead others with love. Through my Christ-like love for others, let it also be clear to others that I am your disciple.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Lead with Love

Loving Savior,
This week I ask that you help me better see how to LOVE: Lead Others Voluntarily & Evangelically. I thank you for the blessings I have personally received from having gifted leaders in my life. Their leadership has inspired me and spurred me on to grow and develop in different areas of life. You use gifted leaders to build up your church in many ways.

The thought of leading can be intimidating to many. However, when we remember that leadership is essentially influencing others, we can see a number of ways that leading in love can be very impactful. Leading with love means that I take the initiative to serve others and meet needs as they arise, rather than waiting for others to step up. When I love proactively in these ways, I positively influence others, and my love becomes a visible, tangible thing, rather than just a concept or a feeling. Curb any temptation in me to confuse influential leadership with manipulation that would seek to use other people or situations for self-serving purposes. Instead, let me lead with love as Jesus did, and use my example to shape how others view love and put it into practice, too. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.