Lord, please replace our morality with your version of love.This would reorder things in the church for sure:
Above rule-keeping would reign the very power of Christ, free to bring into the church the misfits, the unloved, the messy;
Above the church pecking order would reign the equal status of all those who simply put their faith in Jesus for what he did for us on the cross regardless of how many things we do right or wrong;
Above the haves vs the have-nots would reign every person who simply asks to be birthed with the exceeding love that Jesus brought to earth for our true rescue.I'm not making this up. Paul, in Galatians, says:
As for those considered important in the church, their reputation doesn't concern me. God isn't impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I.
We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." We know very well we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ.
What actually took place [in me, Paul] was this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man.
My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God.It is so tempting to try to live morally, setting ourselves above or below one another. In God's eyes, we must fail here because we are replacing his version of love with our rule-keeping, impress-others agenda.
So...about that prayer:
Lord, please replace our morality with your version of love. Then we, like Paul, will experience that Christ lives in us. His love will drive our faith, our decisions, our actions. What an exceeding world (and church) that would be.Comments are welcome at feedyourstrength@gmail.com.
