Compassionate Lord,

I’ll never forget the scene in the waiting room 

before our son’s first brain surgery. 

Because he worked at a church leading worship, 

and because he had friends who were pastors elsewhere, 

he had four pastors visiting with him and praying with him 

before he went back for surgery. 

Another patient’s wife came over and asked 

if one of the pastors would pray for her husband. 

I’ve never forgotten the feeling of a church bearing our burdens 

when we we were “fainthearted” and “weak.”

Today, we pray for all of the lonely souls 

in waiting rooms and living rooms and locker rooms

who do not know the care of a loving church. 

We pray that we, the church, 

would seek out the weak and fainthearted 

and offer to bear their burdens. 

We pray that they would receive our invitation. 

Thank you for calling us to be 

your ambassadors of hope. 

We pray that we would fulfill this profound calling

in the power of the Holy Spirit 

and by the grace of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Amen.  

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22; Galatians 6:2; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.