A Prayer To Have Patient and Hospitable Hearts As We Begin To Interact With Others Again

 It’s going to be very interesting to see what actions people take as we slowly move out from these long months at home within very tight bubbles of social contact.  On the one hand I think most of us would like to be able to just get out and go places and see others around us.  It’s been fun to watch reactions as part of Great Britain have opened up for shopping and dinners out etc.  What will it mean to be able to have a social life, a church life, a community life again?

One of the things God values is people being with one another and being hospitable to each other.

In the Bible in Romans 12 we read these words:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.   Romans 12:9-13

Well, as nice as it will certainly be to see others, I suspect that many of the things these verses are reminding us to practice will hold some challenges for us.  We’ve spent a lot of time on our own doing what we wanted when we wanted, thinking our own thoughts and considering what we needed to do or not do.  I will be very surprised if at certain points we don’t find that being with others doesn’t get on our nerves a bit and we get irritated by what we encounter. 

If being sincerely loving at all times weren’t a challenge I doubt that Paul would have bothered writing to people to tell them to do it.  If thinking about others and honouring them and their needs over our own desires and ways wasn’t challenging, the people would not have needed to be encouraged to do so.

And so Lord we come to You today asking for Your help and things open up or as we prepare ourselves for when things do open up where we live.  We all have weaknesses and character defects and we need Your grace God, to accept one another as we are and learn how to come alongside each other in ways that are mutually beneficial. 

We do pray to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer no matter what our circumstances are today and how they might change tomorrow. 

The Bible says:  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  Ephesians 4:2-3

We’re not sure how our own hearts and minds have been changed and bent towards self-centeredness by all these long months of social isolation.  We needed to be in our own homes in a small bubble of people for health reasons but now we want to ask You God for the grace we need to make the changes and to practice the flexibility we need with others whose ways and personalities are so different from our own. 

Give us hospitable hearts that welcome diversity and the creativity that can come from that.  Give us patience as we learn once again how to put up with one another and let things go that need letting go as well as lovingly and respectfully confronting anything that needs bringing out in the open and sorted out.  Help us to be humble, gentle, and patient, always striving to live in unity with others.

So, as we begin to interact more with others, help us to live out Your way of being loving, God.  We need your blessing and the power of your Spirit if we are to follow Your way of love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8