Day 4: Pragma, Love That Lasts
Bible passage: 1 Peter 4:8; Ephesians 4:2–3
Love That Goes the Distance
Today is Monday 11th of April 2022. Welcome to Day 4 of our 7 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Today’s word is pragma: practical, committed love that has stood the test of time.
You will not find this word used for love in the New Testament, but you will find what it describes on almost every page: love that is patient, that perseveres and that does not give up.
What Lasting Love Looks Like
After the Feelings Settle
Most marriages begin with strong feelings. Those feelings are a gift, but they were never meant to carry a marriage for fifty years. Something deeper has to grow: a steady decision to stay, to serve and to keep choosing the same person.
Think of a couple you know who have been married for decades. They know each other’s faults better than anyone, and they are still holding hands. That is love that has matured.
Not Only for Marriage
This love belongs in friendship and in church life too. It is the friend who is still there after the crisis has passed. It is the church member who keeps turning up, keeps serving and keeps forgiving. Paul says that love never gives up and endures through every circumstance (1 Corinthians 13:7).
How Love Endures
It Covers
Peter writes that we should keep showing deep love for each other, because “love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (NLT) That does not mean pretending wrong is right. It means refusing to keep a record, refusing to broadcast someone’s failures and choosing to forgive.
It Makes Allowance
Paul tells us to be humble and gentle, to be patient, and to make allowance for each other’s faults because of our love (Ephesians 4:2–3). God made us different on purpose. The habits that irritate us in other people are often the other side of gifts we need.
It Proves Our Love for God
John is blunt. We love because God first loved us, and anyone who claims to love God while hating a brother or sister is not telling the truth (1 John 4:19–21). Our love for the people we can see is the measure of our love for the God we cannot see.
Choosing It Today
Stay. Is there a relationship you have been tempted to walk away from? Ask God for the grace to stay and work at it.
Let it go. Is there an old offence you keep bringing up? Hand it to God for the last time.
Celebrate the difference. Thank God for one thing in a person close to you that is not like you.
Prayer Points for Today
Pray that we would love one another faithfully, whatever our differences.
Pray that a spirit of unity would rule in our homes and in our church.
Pray that we would be bound together in peace, and that others would notice it.
Pray that we would forgive quickly when offences come.
Prayer for Today:
Father, thank You that Your love for me has never given up. Teach me to love like that. Give me patience with the people closest to me and grace to make allowance for their faults, as You do for mine. Where love has grown cold in our homes or our church, rekindle it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep going
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