Love

Another installment of "The Gospel According to Jeannine".

The scripture on my "Scripture a Day" calendar for yesterday was Moroni 7:48. The proceeding verses discuss charity and closely parallel 1 Corithinians Chapter 13. After a discussion of what charity is and isn't, we get verse 48:

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

I've always read this verse with each of the "that" phrases set apart by a semi-colon referring to what we are praying for. And I can still see very good arguments for that interpretation, but what about this? What if we are praying to be filled with the love, and because we are filled with the love the other things occur?

We become the sons (or daughters) of God, not through prayer, but through love, both His for us, and ours for Him and everyone else.

We shall be like him, not through prayer, but because we share the same love. We see him as he is because we see him through love.

We have hope, not through prayer, but through love. We can hope for these things because we understand his love for us.

We are purified and he is pure, not through prayer, but through love. Love is a purifier.

This is not a prayer bashing post. We still need to pray for that kind of love, but at this point in my life, I see the rest of the verse as results of love, not prayer directly.

Thoughts?