[hospitality: the practice of welcoming strangers, visitors, or guests into our lives with kindness and generosity]
Theme: Extending hospitality to the elderly.
Challenge: Go visit the nursing home or senior center and spend an afternoon with the residents. Eat a meal together, play games, or just be present. Offer to pray for someone before you leave.
Daily Prayer: One way God creates a hospitable spirit within us is through prayer. Throughout the month of July, let us together bring before God these specific prayers for the elderly.
Sunday: Pray for those who take care of our elderly at the senior centers and nursing homes. Pray that God will give them an extra measure of grace, love, and patience for the people they are taking care of.
Monday: Notice the people around you who are older. Pray that God might open your eyes to the people that surround you. What needs do you perceive for which you might be an answer?
Tuesday: Pray that the elderly who do not have anyone to take care of them will feel God’s presence with them. There is hidden loneliness when spouses, siblings, and children are not around.
Wednesday: Ask that God would guide the lawmakers and government officials of our country, that they might be aware of the needs of the elderly, so that everyone might have access to good care in their later days.
Thursday: Part of getting older is experiencing physical pain. Ask God to bring relief and healing to those who are suffering in their bodies.
Friday: Reach out in some way to another member of our church family whom you know might be lonely today. Pray a blessing of God’s presence when you connect with them.
Saturday: Hold before God all in the medical industry who work with the elderly. Ask God to provide them with the energy, guidance, and wisdom they need to serve the aging well.
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