Prayer For Reconciliation in All Our Relationships
Friday July 31, 2020
RECONCILIATION
During these days of the pandemic we have an opportunity to reflect on many things and remember all sorts of incidents that took place in the near history or long ago. Some of those memories bring great joy. Others, bring great sadness or pain.
God wants us to live in a place of peace with our memories and so he instructs us in the Bible how to take care of anything that is buried in our hearts that brings us hurt or seems to lead to anger.
Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar
and they remember that your brother or sister
has something against you, leave your gift there
in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled
to them; then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 5:23-24
Dealing with the painful wounds in our hearts and relationships is very important to God. It’s not easy to sort out painful issues with others, particularly those who are close to us, yet God knows that this is the way for us to know great blessing and great peace and His near presence.
This was so important to God that when he knew there was an issue between us and Him, He was willing to send Jesus to come and die for us, to take the punishment for our wrong so we could come into right relationship with God.
It was through what his Son did
that God cleared a path for
everything to come to him—
all things in heaven and on earth—
for Christ’s death on the cross
has made peace with God
for all by his blood. This includes you
who were once so far away from God.
You were his enemies and hated him
and were separated from him
by your evil thoughts and actions,
yet now he has brought
you back as his friends.
He has done this through the death
on the cross of his own human body,
and now as a result Christ has brought you
into the very presence of God, and you
are standing there before him with nothing
left against you—nothing left
that he could even chide you for;
Col 1:20-22
How amazing is that? How much should that encourage us and motivate us to deal with any relationships where we know a strain exists today.
Let’s pray today that God will help us with our memories, help us with making things right in our relationships, and help us to have an open heart in our relationship with Him.
Heavenly father, we thank you today for the great gift of Jesus who makes your forgiveness available to us so that we can be reconciled to you and live forever in your blessing and kindness.
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18
You have forgiven so much more that we have done wrong than any set of wrongs we may have in our memories against someone else. You also know the ways that we have let others down. It’s something of a mixed bag of what others have done and what we have done. It’s difficult to sort many of these situations out. It’s impossible without your grace and your healing.
Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesian 4:32
And so today we are asking you to search our hearts, search our memories, and show us any disturbing things that need to be taken care of, any things that we have done or things that have been done to us that we know keep us in some kind of distance from another human being.
Look after each other so that none of you fails
to receive the grace of God. Watch out
that no poisonous root of bitterness
grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
Hebrews 12:15
We ask for grace to make amends, for generosity of heart to receive others who are wounded and imperfect just like us, and for strength to live in the love that looks like Jesus. We’ll never do it perfectly, but we want to do it better today and we’ve done it any other day. Amen
Recent Hope For Today
Giving Hope
Partners in Hope is supported wholly by our friends and community. We are thankful to everyone who partners with us to help bring hope to the discouraged, hurting, and hopeless.