Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
John 15:13
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FAMILY
What is family to you?
Family is intended to be a place of comfort, of safety, of joy and of peace. Family is supposed to be a place where we are nurtured and protected, so we can become all that God wants us to be.
Family is where we learn unconsciously and consciously to have faith, to love, to forgive, to be charitable and merciful, to be just and law abiding. But family can also be a place where we learn to hate, to discriminate, to hold grudges, to want vengeance and to commit crimes.
Let us take our responsibility to our family seriously.
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4.
“Bear with each other and forgive one another and if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13.
God is Our Father. He is the Creator of the Human Family and He gave His Son Jesus to reconcile our entire global family back to God.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3: 16-18
The Lord wants peace within our families and within our broader world. For that reconciliation to occur, someone must make the first move towards finding a peaceful path forward. There must be a willingness to forgive the past and to forgive injustice, in order to build a different future, a future where hope and peace have a chance.
The seeds of hatred have been sown so deep in our world through ongoing wars and injustices. One act of violence leads to another and another and in the process more and more innocent people and precious children die in a pursuit of vengeance that people feel is justified and necessary. This path of hatred and destruction will only end when God’s love prevails and when mankind begins to see violence and war as a ‘lose-lose’ scenario. We must pray for God’s Will to Be Done! We must pray for a better world for all our children. We must pray for a world where God’s love silences the power of evil and creates peace and a clear understanding that ongoing violence and vengeance will never bring forth true justice because too many innocent people are hurt and killed in that pursuit.
If you have peace within your family, praise God and thank God for it!
If you do not have peace within your own family, pray to God for reconciliation and new beginnings and be the peacemaker that makes the first move towards peace.
If you want to help create a better world for all our children, then please join The Mercy Movement.
The Mercy Movement is a global prayer movement calling all Christians, all over the world, to come together in a circle of prayer daily @ The Time Jesus died for us, 3pm, to pray for our entire human family. At this time, either in our local time zones or in any time zone convenient for prayer, we pray for God’s mercy to be poured out to help end injustice, silencing the power of evil through the infinite love of God. God is ready to help us to do great things, but in order for God’s grace to be poured out we must first acknowledge our own sins, repent and ask God for forgiveness. We must have great faith in God and do all that we can to please Him. The quest to please God begins within our immediate families and with our willingness to turn away from sin. We need to strive to understand one another, to love one another, to forgive one another and to keep supporting one another, even when we are tired and may feel like giving up. We must keep praying for God’s grace to help us in all our relationships trusting in God’s endless love!
Let us pray,
Holy Lord, we come to You today with faith and with hearts that are full of sorrow for having offended You. Please forgive us and help us to build a better world that is filled with Your holy inspiration, Your eternal love and Your infinite mercy. Help us to be witnesses of Your love within our immediate families and within our world. Please help us to create peace and reconciliation; help us to stop violence and end wars. Please help us to find new solutions to end economic injustice and to promote the wellbeing of all. Please heal us, protect us, restore us and give us the opportunity to give You great glory! You are Our God and we come to You for Your grace and for Your divine assistance. We are not worthy of Your great mercy for we have sinned and failed You too many times, but Your love and Your mercy are inexhaustible, so please look not on our sins and give us an extraordinary privilege, a new chance to be holy, righteous, merciful and just. Transform us through Your infinite power into the people that You want us to be for Your pure joy! Work through us great works of mercy and create faith, new understanding, new beginnings, new opportunities for Your love to triumph over all that is evil and contrary to Your holy will so that we can live in peace. In Your Name Jesus we pray, we hope and we trust! We love You so much God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
