TRC Questions #4: Application and Prayer

Yesterday we looked at Luke 10, the parable of the "Good Samaritan"—and how that passage emphasizes for us some of the principles of loving our neighbors that are instructive during a pandemic crisis.

Today let's consider some possible points of application, and some ways we can pray, in light of this.

Application

• Who is YOUR neighbor? Make a list of everyone who you can think of that, according to the parameters in Luke 10, would qualify as your neighbor. NOTE: there may be people whose names you don't even know, but should be included (i.e., "the clerk at the store I visit weekly" or "that new employee I haven't met yet").
• Reflect carefully: if you found out one of these neighbors was in distress, how would you respond? What would you do, say, and/or pray for them? Be as honest with yourself as you can about what your instincts would lead you to do.
• How does neighbor-love shape the way that you have reacted to the pandemic isolation? Does it motivate you to act (or to opt not to act) in some way that you normally wouldn't? Does it give you patience and endurance for things that otherwise would make you frustrated?
• Consider what 1 Corinthians 13 says about what love is. Most often we consider that "love chapter" with regards to romantic love, but take a few minutes to apply it to the idea of neighbor love. How does that re-shape your picture of what loving our neighbors looks like?
• How can Trinity Church love our neighbors better as a congregation? Do you agree that, as an expression of neighbor-love, ceasing to meet in person for worship is a good decision? 
• What hopes do you have for Trinity to extend greater love to neighbor in the future? Can you think of something that we could do, which we haven't? (Reply or leave a comment if so, telling us what it is!)

Prayer

• Father, I pray that you would teach me more every day of how I am to love my neighbor and what that requires of me. Increase my willingness to do so, and give me motivation to expend myself for the sake of others.
• God, please reveal to me the ways that I have not loved my neighbors well, especially during this pandemic, and grant me a contrite heart for where I have fallen short of what you've commanded me to do. Turn my focus from myself and my own comfort and ease to the service and care of others.
• Lord, please use the many acts of loving neighbor—my own, those of my friends and family, and from Christians across the world—to bring hope and grace to those in need of it, and draw our neighbors closer to you through acts of love.
• God, also use the acts of social distancing (whether it is motivated by love for neighbor or not) to effectively reduce the spread of this virus, and bring us back soon to a point where we can make contact with one another again.
• Father, reveal to your congregation of Trinity Church, and especially to the elders, ways in which we might love our neighbors better, more fully, more completely. Help us to have the willingness and selflessness to carry out these acts as we are able.