A Prayer To Enter the Lives Of Others

 

 

Ifinite, eternal and unchangeable God, a source of every blessing and benevolence, of all that is pure and perfect, all that is right and just, we thank You for giving us a new birth into the living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, reserved in heaven for all who keep the faith.  When we think of the value that we place on our faith and the hope that is ours because of it, we are  ashamed that we are so timid and reluctant to share with those with whom we come in contact each and every day.  

 

We have no excuse.  Jesus has set the example for us when He met the woman at the well.  He was tired from His journey.  She was a woman from a different ethnicity, a different culture.  Her life style had separated her from the other women of the village.   How easy for Jesus to ignore her, to walk the other way.  Instead He speaks to her: “Give me a drink of water.”  With these words He invited conversation.  And so begins a discourse that changed her life.  It led to her going to the village and sharing the good news and we read, “Many believed in Him because of the testimony of that woman.”

 

We realize again this morning that is what You ask of each of us.  You ask that we use the opportunities You give to us to enter into the lives of others.  You ask that we not ignore the many individuals who come into our lives, often by what seems to be by chance, when You have meant it to be a divine appointment.  You meant it to be an answer to some mother’s prayer, who on bended knee, asked that You would place one of Your own in the pathway of a wayward daughter.     

 

What makes us so tentative, dear Lord?  Why do we not believe that we are Your instrument to save and redeem those who are wayward and lost?   Why, O Lord, do we not believe that those whom You have placed in our pathway, are there because of a father’s prayer to bring back his son who has strayed from the teachings in his youth?   Oh, we know that in a day when people guard their privacy, that we are tempted not to invade their lives. But what if Christ had felt it necessary to guard the privacy of the woman at the well?  A whole village would have missed the opportunity to know the Messiah.  Is guarding someone’s privacy more important than leading him or her to the source of all joy, peace, and eternal happiness?

 

Heavenly Father, it is time that we ask this question of one another lest villages of people never come to know Him who is the Savior of the world.  Stop us, O Lord, from fearing to enter into the lives of others.  Help us to see what looks like a coincidence to be by divine appointment.  This is our prayer, offered in the holy name of Jesus.

 

Amen.