Col 3:18-19 (NIV) Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Jesus, help my relationship with You not be like getting married to someone I can’t stand and don’t trust. Just like that would break the purpose of two people getting married, that would break our purpose for being together.

Jesus, show me that just like a marriage is to be a relationship of sharing everything, loving one another, caring for one another, and trusting each other completely, a relationship with You lacking love and trust would break all the purposes for the relationship. Help see that establishing a relationship with You is very similar to establishing a marriage relationship; it is all about love.

Mark 12:30 (NIV) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Jesus, help me see that love isn’t required in a business relationship. In most cases I don’t feel any attachment, concerns, relationship, or love for a person taking my money at a store. I just want to get my supplies, take care of my needs, and then get on with my life. So, I conduct a business transaction with them. However, make it clear to me that love IS required in a Jesus-relationship with You. I can’t just do what it takes to get what I want from You and leave.

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus, You are doing Your part in reaching out to me for a relationship. You already love me more than I am even capable of loving myself or You. You have a sacrificial love for me that caused You to die for me. Now it time for me to not only trust, believe in, and ask You for things, it is time to learn how to love You. AND, as usual, God is not only requiring love of me, He is providing it.

Jesus, You showed me that You require me to have a faith relationship with You. So, since You require me to have faith, You supplied it for me: Heb 12:2a (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Now I am seeing that You require love from me; so, You supplied it too: Rom 5:5b (NIV) God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. You aren’t requiring me to learn how to love; You are asking me to learn how to yield to Your love that I ALREADY HAVE in my heart.

Jesus, God demonstrated in Your birth, life, death, and resurrection that He will go to ANY length to give me everything I need. But, He requires that I ask You to help me with them; and, then He expects me to believe He is true to His word. Then from these special experiences I get from my relationship of asking and believing in You, You will help me learn to yield to God’s love for You.

Jesus, if I married someone and then found out I really didn’t trust them or like them very much, I would have a decision to make. If I didn’t want to go through the messy aspects of divorce and decided to go ahead and stay married to them, that would give me a chance to build a relationship with them. Then after a few years of living together, talking together, going through difficult times together, I found myself trusting them and loving them with all my heart.

Jesus, teach me that building experiences together, going through difficult times together, sharing together, and helping one another, all help me develop a love relationship. Show me that, that is what will happen in our relationship.

Jesus, help me understand that it is going to take me some time to get to the place where I am able to start asking You for the things of my life like You want me to. Show me that it is going to take some time for me to learn how to trust, believe, have faith, rely, and depend on You like You want me to. But, make it clear to me that during that time of learning how to do these things, I will find myself learning to not only ask You for Your help, I will not only learn how to believe and trust You, I will learn to love You with all my heart.