Love: Our Relationship with Each Other

Love: Our Relationship with Each Other

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. – John 15:12-17

What does love look like? Look at Christ and you’ll see it. Love looks to the good of others and lays down its life to accomplish that good. Love is the mark of the church—the bond that holds us together with each other and with Christ.

Pray for love of this quality to grow in our body at Northpoint, and ask God to produce it in you. Christ-like love is a high command. Look to Christ and He will enable you to live the love He has for us.

The High Command: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
• The love Christ calls us to is sacrificial, and He alone can produce it in us. Trust Him to do it.

Our Closest Friend: You are my friends if you do what I command you.
• Jesus commandment is to love one another as He loved us—by laying down His life for us. Ask God to lead us by faith to walk in love and trust Him with the consequences.

A New Relationship: No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
• In Christ, God is our Friend, and Jesus tells us what is on His heart for us to know. Ask God to reveal Himself to you more and more fully.

Our Call from Christ: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.
• Christ chose and appointed us to go and bear lasting fruit. Expect God to produce His fruit in you—especially Christ-like love.

Our Promise from Christ: so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
• We can expect God to answer our prayers so He can accomplish His call through us. Pray for
increased faith.

Our High Command: These things I command you so that you will love one another.
• Love one another is a command worth repeating and a call only Christ can accomplish in us and through us. Praise God for His patient work to perfect Christ’s character in you.

Love One Another: Things to Remember
• Christ asks nothing of us that He has not already done Himself. He is able to shape us into His image.
• Jesus Christ is your Friend. He is alive in heaven today and right by your side right now and always.
• In response to our prayers, Jesus discloses Himself to us, so we can know Him and His will.
• We are His chosen ones—Christ’s Beloved.
• Christ Himself has promised to answer our prayers. Pray expectantly.
• Rejoice in Christ’s love for us and in us.

Prayer for Northpoint

Ask God to create Christ-like love within you and within our church body at Northpoint. Pray for …

1. Our Pastors and Directors: Brent Whitefield, Scott Williams, Terilyn Brown, Geoff Grant, Taylor Mendoza, Tamene Menna, and Marty Wiegman.
• Ask God to equip them to lead us in loving each other.
2. Our Lay Elders: Tim East, Steve Flood, Mark Kiker, Mike Russell, and Vinoj Zechariah.
• Pray for God’s strength and protection on them, so that by imitating them, we imitate Christ.
3. Our Church Staff: Michelle Balga, Bob Brown, Andria Brucks, Jacob Williams, Carolee Jefferson, Josh Figueroa, Amber McEwen, Mark Norland, Corie Saunders, and Teri Vaughn
• Pray for the love of Christ to flow through each one of them as they serve Christ in our church.
4. John Sloan, Brent Whitefield and their families: Seek God’s Grace and guidance and blessing as they serve Him in the churches where He is calling them.
• Ask God to perfect His love in them as they pursue His will for their lives. Pray for personal openness to God’s work in their hearts and lives.
5. Our Church Body: Pray that God will make you open, accepting, and trusting, as He exposes areas in your life where He wants to make you grow.

In Him,

Dave Dussault
Northpoint Prayer Ministry

– Each week, Dave writes a monthly Bible reading plan and weekly Bible and prayer focus, Prayer Life. The preceding is the latest Prayer Life installment. You can pick up both offerings at the Information Center in the Foyer on Sundays, or sign up there to receive them via email. You can also click here to find the archive.