Prayer for August 2, 2021

Prayer for August 2, 2021: Please pray with me. God of the nations, humanity has gotten really good at finding ways to separate, dehumanize, and demean others. We’ve gotten very good at rationalizing away the things you have told us to do. I doubt this is a surprise to you. But I can only imagine how painful it must be to watch your creation do the exact opposite of what you tell us to do, to do the very things that you warn us not to because of the harm we inflict on ourselves and others. I can’t fathom how painful that must be for you. And we seem undeterred, and unwilling to listen or even consider that there might be another way. Forgive us for our stubbornness. But I beg you, please soften our hearts. Please. There is too much damage done because of hardened hearts. We go on doing these things forgetting that we have hearts. Amen.

Call to Action: To today, contemplate what you feel when someone you care about refuses to listen to you — especially when what you are saying will prevent harm to the person. Now try to grasp what that must be for God when we don’t listen, and multiply that by the entirety of humanity throughout history. It’s enormous and overwhelming and beyond our comprehension. Ask yourself this question — how can you better listen to God and act on what God calls on you to do and how to live? What would help you to do this?

Originally published at https://pastormatthewbest.com on August 2, 2021.