Holy Week Fast | Tuesday

Over the course of the next three days, we will be praying and fasting, focusing on deepening our intimacy with Jesus—that we might know, experience, and believe in Jesus’ love poured out for us on the cross. Our hope and prayer is that this is an open door to abiding love.

Today, we’ll be praying out of 1 John 4:7-21, a passage describing the dynamic between the God of Love and his people. Take a moment at the beginning of your day, during meal times, or whenever makes sense to meditate on God’s word, letting the Holy Spirit breathe new life and insight on His words, and venturing deeper into the truths of the Gospel.

Below are a few prompts to help guide your prayer, but feel free to open up your time to the Holy Spirit’s leading into deeper relationship and intimacy with the Father.

• Father, what are places in my life where your love has impacted, changed, or blessed me? (feel free to turn this into a moment of gratitude)

• Jesus, what does it mean for me to abide in your love? What is your personal invitation for me this week?

• Holy Spirit, who are you asking me to love today? What does that look like practically? Take a moment to also pray for the person that came to mind.

1 John 4:7-21

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹  God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰  In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹  Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹²  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

¹³  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴  And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵  God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. ¹⁶  So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. ¹⁹  We love because he first loved us. ²⁰  Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,^[c] are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹  The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.