This daily prayer is for anyone who wants to love the people in their life more patiently, more honestly and more generously. Pray it in the morning before the day’s conversations begin, or any time you notice your heart growing cold toward someone. You can read it aloud exactly as written, or use it as a starting point and speak in your own words.
Daily Prayer for Loving Others
Lord, you have loved me long before I ever loved anyone back, and I thank you for that. This morning I ask you to make my love real. Help me love the people closest to me, the spouse who is tired, the child who will not listen, the parent who still criticizes, the friend who has let me down. Give me patience when I am short with them, and soften the places in me that want to keep score.
Father, I also ask for the people I find hard to love: the coworker who takes credit, the neighbor whose habits annoy me, the stranger who cuts me off on the road. Keep me from assuming the worst about them. Show me one small way today I can act in their good, even if I never tell them. Guard my tongue so that what I say builds up rather than tears down.
Lord, I know I cannot manufacture this kind of love on my own. Pour your love into me so that it spills out into my conversations, my work and my home. Let people see something of you in the way I treat them today. Amen.
A Shorter Version to Pray in a Moment
Lord, fill me with your love right now. Help me see the person in front of me as you see them. Slow my words, soften my tone and give me the courage to act kindly even when I do not feel like it. Let my love for others today come from you and point back to you. Amen.
Scriptures to Pray Alongside
1 Corinthians 13:4-5
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, 5 doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil…
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Pray these words as a checklist for your own heart today. Ask God to show you where you are impatient or quick to take offense, and to make your love look more like what Paul describes.
1 John 4:19
We love him, because he first loved us.
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Use this verse to remember that your capacity to love begins with being loved by God. Thank him for loving you first, and ask him to let that love flow through you to others.
Romans 12:10
In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor preferring one another…
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Pray this verse over the relationships where you tend to hold back. Ask God to help you honor the people around you, especially the ones who have not earned it in your eyes.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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Bring this command of Jesus to God and ask him to make your love for other believers, and for everyone you meet, a clear reflection of the way he has loved you.
Colossians 3:12-14
12 Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. 14 Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
(WEB)
Pray this passage for the moments when forgiveness feels impossible. Ask God to clothe you with compassion, kindness and patience, and to let love hold everything together.
How to Pray This Prayer
Choose a regular time, such as while your coffee is brewing or during your commute, and pray this prayer at the same time each day. Keep a pen nearby and write down the name of one person you are praying for. Over the coming days, the list will show you how God is working in your relationships.
If you share a home with others, consider praying the prayer together at breakfast or before a family outing. You can also pass it to a friend who is struggling in a relationship and offer to pray it with them by phone. Loving others is easier when you do not carry the effort alone.
A Blessing to Close
May the Lord who loved you first fill your days with patient, honest and generous love. May he give the people in your life a glimpse of his kindness through you, and may you rest in the assurance that you are deeply loved by him.
