A Prayer about Being Transformed by Love

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Shaping Spirit,

Yesterday we meditated on the wondrous love of God. 

Today we ponder how that love changes us. 

We know when we read 1 Corinthians 13 

that it wasn’t originally written for a wedding; 

it was written to gently rebuke the Corinthians 

for a notable lack of love. 

Humbly we come to you, 

asking that your love would change us, 

that we might not be 

“noisy gongs” 

and “clanging cymbals” (1 Corinthians 13:1). 

Through your transforming power, 

may we not become “nothing,” 

people who seem outwardly spiritual 

but who have no love inside (1 Cor. 13:2-3). 

Instead, may we become people 

marked by the love of God:

[With each of these characteristics, name specific situations and/or specific people with whom you’d like to see the Spirit change you]:

Patient and kind 

Does not envy or boast

Is not arrogant or rude

Does not insist on its own way

Is not irritable or resentful

Does not rejoice at wrongdoing

Rejoices with the truth

Bears all things

Believes all things

Hopes all things

Endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Holy Spirit, because the love of God never ends, 

we know you will never stop interceding for us 

to become more loving, 

more like Christ. 

We thank you for this good news 

and pray that we will see the fruit of your love 

blossoming in our lives 

and spreading its fragrant aroma. 

In Jesus’ perfectly loving name. Amen.

Read 1 Corinthians 13.