{From THE LIGHT OF HIS PRESENCE ; Published by Multnomah Oct 6, 2020}
Covenant-Making, Covenant-Keeping God,
Your mercy endures forever. Your love endures forever.1 Your Word endures forever. Your faithfulness is to all generations.2 You are the Rock that does not move. You are for us. You have chosen us. You have saved us. You have given us freely, graciously “everything we need for life and godliness.”3 From the fullness of Your grace, You have poured out on us one blessing after another.4 Yet we have failed to respond to Your generosity, blessings, and mercy as we should.
We confess to You our ingratitude. We have not been truly thankful to You for the blessings You have given us before and after salvation. Instead, we have given ourselves credit for many of the blessings that come from Your hand.
We repent.
We confess that we’ve allowed our love for You to grow cold. We have lost our passionate first love for You. Instead, we give our love to our bank accounts, our sports teams, our pleasures, our careers, other people, or even to ourselves.
We repent.
We confess our neglect of Your Word, the Bible. We spend more time reading blogs, online news, the latest bestselling novel, business periodicals, or even owner’s manuals for our newest tech toys than we do reading Your Word.
We repent.
We confess our unbelief. In reality, we think Your promises are for others or for another day. We don’t think they actually work for us now. And thus we call You a liar.
We repent.
We confess our prayerlessness. We ask others to pray for us, but we don’t pray for ourselves. We daydream, fantasize, and indulge in wishful thinking and call it “prayer.” Then we blame You when You don’t answer.
We repent.
We confess our love of the world and material things. We complain about or resent the fact that we owe You a minimum of 10 percent of our income. So we don’t give it to You.
We repent.
We confess that we have robbed You of the honor due You. We give You the leftovers of our time, thoughts, emotions, money. We waste time on things that have no eternal value. We exercise our God-given gifts and talents for a fee. We are willing to do for a price what we will not do freely for You.
We repent.
Holy Lord, with tears on our faces and shame in our hearts, we sincerely, courageously rend our hearts.5 We repent of our sin. Not only do we name it for what it is in Your sight, but we also turn away from it. We claim Your promise of forgiveness of sin through Your blood. We claim Your promise that if we confess our sins, You will be faithful and just to forgive us and purify us.6
Thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You for the blood that washes us clean. Thank You that our tears were on Your face. Thank You that as our High Priest You understand firsthand our human weaknesses.7 Thank You that although You were sinless, You became sin for us that we might be right with You.8
We bow before You in humble gratitude.
In Jesus’s name,
Amen.
1. Psalm 136:1.
2. Psalm 119:89–90.
3. 2 Peter 1:3.
4. John 1:16.
5. Joel 2:13.
6. 1 John 1:9.
7. Hebrews 4:15.
8. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
