Advent Prayer Week 4: The Love Candle — sacred illustration
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Advent

Advent Prayer Week 4: The Love Candle

1 John 4:9-10

1 John 4:9-10 is from the First Letter of John, written to early Christians, explaining that God’s love was revealed when He sent His one and only Son into the world, and that love begins with God loving us, not with us loving God.

Father, this is how You showed Your love: You sent Your one and only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. I didn’t love You first; You loved me. As I light the fourth candle, fill me with that love. Make my home warm with it, and send me to love someone this Christmas who needs it most. Amen.

1 John 4:9-10 is from the First Letter of John, written to early Christians, explaining that God’s love was revealed when He sent His one and only Son into the world, and that love begins with God loving us, not with us loving God.

The Scripture

“This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

— 1 John 4:9-10

Prayer points from 1 John 4:9-10

  1. Thank God that He loved you first.
  2. Thank Him for sending Jesus so that you might live through Him.
  3. Bring Him a person you find hard to love.
  4. Pray for someone who will feel lonely this Christmas.
  5. Ask Him to show you one concrete way to love someone this week.
  6. Pray for your home to be full of His love at Christmas.

About this verse

The First Letter of John comes back again and again to love, and in chapter 4 it says it plainly: “God is love.” Then it shows where to see it: “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” Christmas is that sending. John goes further. Love does not begin with us: “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” The manger and the cross belong to the same love. And the letter draws the conclusion for ordinary life: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Many churches light the fourth Advent candle as the love candle, though some order the four themes differently or name this candle for the angels. This prayer is for the fourth Sunday of Advent and the last days before Christmas.

When to pray this prayer

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