A Prayer for Worshiping Patiently

Funny enough, I thought about not posting a fruit of the Spirit prayer for worship this week. But that wouldn’t be very long-suffering of me, would it? That’s what patience boils down to: long-suffering. Bearing with one another. Enduring. Carrying on. Waiting it out. Persisting.

So this weekend, let’s persist in prayer and praise, together.

God, you are so patient with us.

We confess that we often grow tired of worshiping but are continually captivated by lesser things. We are full of excuses for sleeping in, staying home, and rejecting the invitation to fellowship that you extend to us week after week in pursuit of cheaper, quicker pleasures. We arrive for worship irritated with one another, or with the music, or at the time we could be spending doing other things. We are swift to denounce our services as pointless when they do not immediately appeal to us.

Instead, teach us to welcome every call to worship as a call to wait on you—to let you work in and through us as we sing together. Teach us to welcome the predictable patterns and slow songs of weekly worship in place of our craving for novelty and stimulation. Teach us to prefer consistent engagement over constant entertainment, and to prioritize communal participation over personal comfort.

Thank you for giving us musical worship as a way to remember, rejoice in, and reflect your patience. Encourage us as we persist in praise alongside one another. Let us bear with others because you so graciously bear with us.

Above all, let our patience point toward your patience; you are patient because you desire our repentance and salvation (2 Pet. 3:9). Let our patience not be mere tolerance, then, but the pursuit of genuine harmony with you and one another. Let the slow, steady rhythms of our weekly worship form us for an eternity of praise.

Amen

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Ryanne_JM

Ryanne Molinari (MLitt, University of St. Andrew’s) is a pianist/organist, pastor’s wife, and lover of words. She is the author of Spirit-Filled Singing: Bearing Fruit as We Worship Together, and her writing has been published in journals such as the Journal of the T. S. Eliot Society (UK). Connect with Ryanne by subscribing to her blog or following her on Instagram.