By Hal Green
Pondering Prayer
Love is the greatest of all the gifts of the spirit of God. In truth, love is more than a gift; it is God, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16). God’s love for us makes possible our love for God in response, as well as our love for humanity. The words of the Apostle John make this quite clear:
“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love . . . So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:7-8, 17-19).
The question remains, how best to approach God in prayer. The answer is as simple as it is profound. When I was completing my 2023 book, “Pray This Way to Connect with God,” I woke up one morning and was addressed immediately by a seemingly awaiting sentence from above: “Approach God, as you approach love itself.” Like an invisible key, that sentence opens up the purest prayer path to God.
In hidden fact, that is just what we are doing in prayer, approaching love itself. As you do so, listen for love as you would listen for God. And believe in that voice; let it serve as God’s affirming voice. I wonder whether love is actually God incognito here, working in and through our hearts and lives.
We may want God to love us because of who we are, as if we somehow deserve it. Yet none of us deserve such glorious love. God loves us because of who God is, rather than who we are. This is the meaning of grace: an unmerited gift of love, simply to be embraced.
In this breath prayer, sitting comfortably in a straight-back chair and “belly-breathing,” breathe in God’s love, which always surrounds you, awaiting your discovery. And when you breathe out, breathe out your love for God, in response to God’s love for you. Then as you are able, give yourself to that love. Let the words of the poet Tagore inspire you, as they do me: “I am only waiting for love, to give myself up at last into his hands.”
Receive the greatest of all God’s gifts, God’s love for you and love through you to others. There is no more essential “leap of faith,” than to believe in this wondrous love. It is only God’s love which can fully empower your love for God, love for others, and also love for yourself.
(Hal Green, Ph.D., is author of Pray This Way to Connect with God. You can contact him at drhalgreen@gmail.com.)
