A Week of Prayer, and Setting New Goals

Tuesday: Compassionate people    

Scriptures: Ephesians 4:32 to 5:2, especially 4:32 :-‘Be kind and compassionate to one another.’

Let’s think today about how we all need love, mercy, forgiveness and compassion.
Thank God for his compassion towards you.
Can you think of a person who has shown compassion or kindness to you? If you’re meeting as a group, share stories from your experience.
Thank God for them.
Is there someone you know to whom you could show a bit of understanding or compassion in a difficult time?
How can you do this practically?

Write down on paper: what are the needs of the communities we serve? Take some time to consider this carefully, and if you’re with others, discuss it for a few minutes.
How can we, as a church, be a compassionate people?
Then, write or say a prayer, asking God to show us how to meet some of these needs.

Pray too for the work of BMS World Mission, our link Missionary Anne Wiles, and other people and agencies who show God’s compassion in practical ways all around the world.

You could finish with the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith ;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.