Hallelujah, What a Savior

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer of Praise for the Love of Jesus

     Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

     Dear Jesus, the portion of your Word creates a holy ambivalence in my heart this morning. On one hand, I feel great despair, for my thoughts, words and deeds contradict the beauty of the love described in these few verses. On the other hand, I feel overwhelming delight, for this is exactly the way you love me and every member of your babes-in-agape Bride.
     Indeed, we would eternally despair if the gospel wasn’t true. May your lavish love for us be so convicting, compelling and transforming that we will fall down in worship of you today and rise to love one another as you love us. Have mercy of us, Jesus, have mercy on me.
     No one is as patient and kind as you, Jesus. You never get disgusted with us or roll your eyes in contempt. Your kindness is not connected to anything in us, for we give you plenty of reasons to be angry and harsh. You certainly don’t envy anything we have or are, for there is nothing to envy. In fact, you’re the opposite of envy—you’re generous. You’ve taken our poverty and have given us your riches. You’re the only one who can boast about anything, yet you emptied yourself of your glory, taking the nature and posture of a humble servant—the Servant of the Lord, dying in our place that we might live with you forever.
     Your matchless humility exposes our pervasive arrogance, and your constant tenderness shames our penchant for rudeness. Far from insisting on your own way, you called the Father’s will your bread. Our selfishness stands condemned. Jesus, you never get irritated, as hard as that is to conceive, and you don’t resent anything or anyone, even for a nano-second. Your heart breaks over evil and no one delights in truth more than you, for you are the Truth.
     Jesus you bear all things, because you bore the full weight of our sin upon the cross. You believe all things, because you know all things. Nothing will ever surprise you. You hope all things, because you know the end of God’s Story and have made it ours. You endure all things, because you are presently making all things new, including us. Hallelujah, what a salvation! Hallelujah, what a Savior. Live and love more fully in us and through us. So very Amen, we pray, in your merciful and matchless name.