American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 54
ARC Prayer Meeting
This coming Wednesday night the American Reformation Church will gather for our weekly prayer meeting. My son, Micah Samuel Thomas, will be leading the charge. The Lord has opened an effectual door to travel to Arizona to minister at the Apologia Man’s Camp and preach Sunday morning at the church. Regardless, the saints will take up their prayer positions and press on to intercede.
Lately, ARC has been doing a series called the ARC Marks. We have been parked on the Biblical mark of love. Since God is love, it is proper and fitting to seek to be a loving church. Last week we focused in on one aspect of Biblical love, which is “love suffers long.”
To exercise true love there has to be strong elements of patience and forbearance as we deal with the sins, shortcomings, mistakes, and misunderstandings of other image bearers. This aspect of love is first demonstrated by God Himself, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). The phrase “slow to anger” means God is long suffering. It describes God’s patient love toward sinners. Malachi reminds us because God does not change, we are not consumed (Malachi 3:6).
The Apostle Paul prayed in the Scriptures inspired by the Holy Ghost for our love to abound more and more in knowledge and all discernment (Philippians 1:9). Apparently, Biblical love requires knowledge and discernment. As we study to show ourselves approved in the Scriptures and gain knowledge of the Holy One, one benefit is our love for God and each other should grow accordingly.
Love’s discerning quality relates to the ability to select, classify, and apply knowledge to make righteous judgments. It's a moral faculty that involves a quick and accurate understanding of things. The love of God has parameters that must be observed otherwise it is not the love of God. For instance, God’s love rejoices in the truth, which means it will never celebrate a lie.
In another passage Paul writes, “And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). Since love is the highest virtue promoted by the New Testament, it is no small wonder that God’s word exhorts that we abound in it from glory to glory, from faith to faith, and from strength to strength.
This Wednesday as we come together to love God with all of our hearts, souls, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, let us pray for God’s love to abound more and more in our souls. May we increase our knowledge of it and discern how to express it with all fidelity to God and His inspired, inerrant, and immutable Word.
