Build us together

Lord, you are good. We have tasted it. We remember the times your kindness reached us when we had nothing to offer, and we ask you to give us appetite for more of you. Make us hungry for your word the way a newborn is hungry, without embarrassment and without delay.

We bring you the things that kill that hunger. Malice we have nursed. Envy we have excused. Words we have spoken about others that we would not speak to their faces. Take them from us. We cannot feed on you with our mouths full of these.

Jesus, you are the living stone, rejected by many and precious to the Father. Lay us in line with you. Where we have drifted from your angles, correct us. Where we have tried to stand alone, set us back among the others. Build us into a house where your Spirit is glad to live.

We are foreigners here. Help us live such good lives among our neighbours that even those who speak against us end up glorifying you. We ask this in your name. Amen.