As I Do – The Presidential Prayer Team

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:2

“Do as I say, not as I do” is a phrase used to describe hypocrisy in a relationship. It is a by-product of the sin nature. In what earthly relationship can you take for granted complete goodwill by the other person? Nowhere, because no human being will get every interaction exactly right, regardless of their intentions. But God gets it right every time!

As a follower of Christ, God wants you to have deep knowledge of who He is, so you can “do what He does.” This is where it can get tricky. Do you believe everything He does is born from love? It may be difficult to scan the landscape of your life and see His compassion in every situation, but it is there all the same.

The Lord is not asking you to do anything He has not already done. He crawled into human flesh and experienced firsthand what it costs to love broken people in a hostile world. God asks you to accept that His love encompasses the imperfection and sin lurking in the darkest recesses of humanity. He wants you to willingly risk the price of loving difficult people with full understanding that you may get hurt!

Pray for courage to follow God’s lead in love! Open your heart to receive more of His love so that it overflows from your life in a Christlike manner. Ask that leaders in America will root out the hypocrisy in their own hearts, come to a new understanding of themselves, and seek God’s way for humankind and the nation.

Today’s Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:2

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: 1 John 4:16-21

¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.