Last week, the sweet church plant where we have been attending the last few months in our neighborhood asked if I would write and read a prayer of confession. I agreed, of course, because I always do; then panicked about trying to write something worthy of being read aloud in church, even in front of just a small group of folks. Nevertheless, I said what was laid on my heart, and I thought maybe someone else might need to hear this as much as I needed to write it.
I am always praying for each of you, and grateful for all the ways you point me to Jesus.
Merciful Father, we confess that again and again we fail to remember who you are, and
therefore who we are. We try to earn your love with our broken notions of obedience and
sacrifice, rather than resting in the truth of who you have made us to be and the things you
require of us.
You call us to love as you love, to seek justice, mercy and truth in a world and community in
desperate need of you. Instead, we turn away from those in need and remain silent in the face
of injustice. We clutter our hearts with the trappings of the world, filling our lives with all the
things we think we need apart from you. We refuse to abandon the American dream, failing to
realize that you are calling us instead into your upside-down Kingdom where the first will be last
and you gain your life by losing it. We pray this morning that this Kingdom will come even here
and now. We ask that the truth of our belovedness will always spill over from our hearts onto the
hurting world around us.
We have developed cases of spiritual amnesia, forgetting the very forgiveness you tell us to
remember with the breaking of your body and the shedding of your blood. Help us in this space
to recall in our hearts the things we have forgotten. To remember the depths of your grace and
the cleansing waters of your forgiveness. And I pray that having washed, we may know the joy
of living in right relationship with you, our loving Father who always forgives because of Your
faithfulness and not because of anything we have done or can ever do to deserve it.
Remind us here of your brokenness for our wholeness, for the blood you poured out to cleanse
our sins and make us new. Remind us that we are never too far away from you to decide to
draw nearer today. We offer you what we can today, all the pieces of ourselves we try to hide or
think aren't good enough. Forgive us for not trusting you more deeply, and thank you for the
ways your love makes us new.
Lets hear this word of assurance from God’s trustworthy word:
Without the shedding of Blood there is no forgiveness of sins. - Hebrews 9:22
But thanks be to God that we read this in Ephesians 1, In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. - Ephesians 1:7
I am always praying for each of you, and grateful for all the ways you point me to Jesus.
therefore who we are. We try to earn your love with our broken notions of obedience and
sacrifice, rather than resting in the truth of who you have made us to be and the things you
require of us.
You call us to love as you love, to seek justice, mercy and truth in a world and community in
desperate need of you. Instead, we turn away from those in need and remain silent in the face
of injustice. We clutter our hearts with the trappings of the world, filling our lives with all the
things we think we need apart from you. We refuse to abandon the American dream, failing to
realize that you are calling us instead into your upside-down Kingdom where the first will be last
and you gain your life by losing it. We pray this morning that this Kingdom will come even here
and now. We ask that the truth of our belovedness will always spill over from our hearts onto the
hurting world around us.
remember with the breaking of your body and the shedding of your blood. Help us in this space
to recall in our hearts the things we have forgotten. To remember the depths of your grace and
the cleansing waters of your forgiveness. And I pray that having washed, we may know the joy
of living in right relationship with you, our loving Father who always forgives because of Your
faithfulness and not because of anything we have done or can ever do to deserve it.
Remind us here of your brokenness for our wholeness, for the blood you poured out to cleanse
our sins and make us new. Remind us that we are never too far away from you to decide to
draw nearer today. We offer you what we can today, all the pieces of ourselves we try to hide or
think aren't good enough. Forgive us for not trusting you more deeply, and thank you for the
ways your love makes us new.
Without the shedding of Blood there is no forgiveness of sins. - Hebrews 9:22
But thanks be to God that we read this in Ephesians 1, In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. - Ephesians 1:7