based on Luke 10:25-37
Faithful God, we approach this time of prayer seeking help from you, from others, from the people and sources we most trust and with which we’re most familiar. We seek help with physical ailments, with unanswered questions, with fears about the future, with emotional strength, with spiritual desolation. We seek your presence and love as we struggle, strive, and strain with those issues most pressing at our core.
In our seeking, it may be that such help may come from places and people we’d never expect, including those we don’t want it from. Sometimes, circumstances and needs transcend our preferred categories of “in” and “out,” “worthy” and “unworthy,” “lovable” and “unlovable,” and the beauty of our common beloved humanity overcomes all for the healing and comfort of our selves and others. And so we open ourselves to the possibility of who you may be sending into our need, trusting in the guidance of your Spirit.
O God, may we be humble enough not only to ask for help, but to receive it in the ways you are bringing it into our lives. Amen.
Jeffrey A. Nelson 