Jesus prays for you

I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf – Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.   (verses 1,2)

Read 1 John 2:1-11

Sometimes it can be tempting to think that God is a miser. It can be tempting to think that God doesn’t want to give you anything good, and that you have to ‘twist his arm’ before you can get any blessing out of him. Especially if you’ve done something wrong, you may feel too ashamed to go to God and ask him for the help that you need to love the people he has placed in your life.

If  you sometimes feel this way, St John has a special message for you: God already loves you so much that he gave you your Lord Jesus to wash you clean and make you ready to serve God. On top of this, Jesus prays for you, so that you won’t miss out on any gift that God wants to give you.

Think about what God has done for you, and what he continues to do for you through Jesus. As you do this, God will give you strength to love all people.

Father, please give me your Holy Spirit, so that I can think about Jesus. Amen.

By Fraser Pearce, in “God’s Promises for each day” (LCA, Openbook Publishers (1999)

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