Prayer from Ephesians 1:4

Ephesians 1:4--According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Humans came into being because God wanted someone He could pour out His love on. He decided to make man in His image. He needed a place for man to live so He decided to create the earth for man to live on. Since the devil had been already kicked out of Heaven, God knew that the trickster would tempt man and man would fall. Revelation 13:8 declares Jesus to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. Through the blood of Jesus' sacrifice God made a way that He could love mankind throughout eternity. God created man even though He knew that man would fall into temptation and sin. Yet, God sent His Son to pay the price for those sins so that He could once again be able to pour out His love on us.

No matter what we've done, God has made a way for Him to love us. No matter how bad or evil the sin was going to be, God's decision BEFORE He started creating things was to love mankind. What a thought! What a God!

When God made that decision before He created earth, He chose to love EVERYBODY. Yes, He chose to love me and you. John 3:16 says that He loved the whole world. That includes the people that have offended us, that hate us, that have done us wrong and all those that do evil. God has never culled anyone out of His love.

Jesus said in Mark 12 that the greatest commandment of all was to love God. Then He said that the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. That includes everyone on the face of the earth. That means the good guys and the bad guys.

As we pray for salvation of the lost we need to include those "bad" guys that our human nature would normally teach us to hate. After all, if they got saved and turned from their evil ways they wouldn't be bad guys any more.

Pray with me:

Father, I thank you that you love me in spite of all the ugly things that I have done. I thank you that You sent Jesus to die in my place. I thank You for the sweet fellowship that we share together. I pray that You would make me a vessel of love that I could share Your compassion with those that I meet. Help them to see Your love through me and give me the opportunity to lead some of them to Jesus.

Father, help me to love those that have hurt and offended me. I know they might not receive Your message of salvation from me so I ask to to send someone across their path to lead them into a relationship with You.

Father, I pray for those who are stirring up evil in our city. I pray that Your presence would be so prevalent that the criminals would turn their lives over to you. I ask that your angels walk the streets of this city to stop them from their crimes and innocent people would be safe. I pray for those in public office that are making ungodly plans that Your Spirit would convict them of their ideas and stop their plans.

All of these are the lost that You love. Help us Christians to decide to walk and pray in love toward those who are doing evil. We pray for a city-wide revival to stir souls to do good instead of evil. In Jesus Name, Amen.