A Prayer for a Heart of Service

Prayer for a Heart of Service

As we begin a new month, this prayer from John Baillie is a great way to focus our hearts on Jesus and how we can love and serve HIM and others.

O, Heavenly Father, give me a heart like the heart of Jesus, a heart more ready to serve than be served, a heart moved by compassion towards the weak and oppressed, a heart set upon the coming of your kingdom in the world of men and women.

I pray tonight, O God, for all the different kinds of people to whom Jesus gave special concern and care when he was on earth:

For those needing food or drink or clothes;
For the sick and all those who are wasted by disease;
For the blind;
For the disabled;
For people suffering from life-shattering diseases like leprosy in Jesus’ time and HIV/AIDS in ours;
For prisoners;
For those oppressed by any injustice, and for refugees and asylum seekers’
For the homeless, and all the lost sheep of our society;
For all victims of sexual exploitation and abuse;
For the lonely;
For all single parents;
For the worried and anxious;
For those who are living faithful lives in obscurity;
For those who are fighting bravely for unpopular causes;
For all those who are working diligently for you throughout your world.

Grant, O Father, that your loving kindness in giving me so much may not make me less sensitive to the needs of others less fortunate, but rather move me to lay their burdens on my own heart. If I should experience any adversity, help me to to brook on my own sorrows, as if I were alone in the world of suffering; but rather help me to take time to serve, with compassion, those who need my help. Let the power of my Lord Jesus Christ be strong within me and his peace invade my spirit. Amen.

— John Baillie from A Diary of Private Prayer

 

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