Loving others deeply

I was sharing with a friend a prayer request I have, and why I have it.  It is based on James 5:16.  James 5:16 is a powerful missions passage, though most folks don't know that. It is actually a verse about love and community. And missions doesn't happen well apart from that. "The effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous person avails much. Confess your faults (I include hardships, struggles, difficulties, even brokenness) to one another so that you may be healed." So, when I pray, I want my prayers to "avail much" and be heard and responded to by God (even if the answer is "no" or "not now" or "I have something different or better planned, trust me"). What this says to me is that, because I love you and desire God's best for you, I will pursue a righteous life - not a self righteous life, or a sin-management kind of life, but an organic holiness, being set apart for God's agenda in a dynamic world, for your sake. That seems to me to be a real kind of love. This includes my pursuing God, or better yet, responding to his ongoing pursuit of me. So, as you can imagine, when the dictates and cares of life press in for my time and attention, and sometimes my devotion, I find it very important to have spent some time with God, reorienting myself to him, believing he is speaking into the very situations, circumstances, crises, etc. that I find myself in. When I am able to be with him in intentional ways, at least in some kind of regular rhythm, I find my soul nourished and I have something to offer into the events that arise in our domain or areas of influence. And hence, my prayers for missionaries are more fervent. And when I love others to this degree, I am hoping and believing that this kind of commitment is what may be seen by the world around me, and that they would then say, "how they love each other. I want some of that." (Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another) and I believe that this depth of relationship is what those in the world around us are desperately wanting and needing.