Prayer As We Acknowledge Our Own Faults Instead of Those of Others
ACKNOWLEDGING OUR OWN WRONGS
We find it so much easier to identify, stand against, and even join the protest against the wrongs of others.
It is so much more difficult to acknowledge the sin in our own heart even though God’s word tells us:
The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately
wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Jeremiah 17:9
We stumble in so many ways and yet it is still so difficult for us to admit that we’ve been stubborn and chosen our own selfish will over God’s way.
1 John 1:9 is one of the most familiar reassuring verses from the Bible about God’s willingness to forgive our sins when we acknowledge them to Him.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9
I find it interesting that these words of assurance are surrounded by these sentences:
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in
the truth. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and
showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
1 John 1:8, 10
Today we simply want to come to God as the people that we are – those who need His forgiveness and gratefully accept it.
Thank you God for Your generous gift of grace and forgiveness for all our sins, when we acknowledge them and turn away from them to You. Too often we not only fail to recognize our sin but even when we know something is wrong we deliberately go ahead in rebellion and self-will. And so God today we need cleansing from both thoughtless hidden sins and deliberate ones. We pray the words in the Bible that say:
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these
hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them
control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. May the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:12-14 NLT
Lord we make far too many excuses to keep from admitting our wrongdoing, but we know that today, if we are willing to be shown, Your Holy Spirit will gently and clearly make us conscious of any behaviour that is not pleasing to You.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8
Help us to take the time to learn Your ways, to be examined by Your Spirit, and then to have the courage to make a good choice. Give us the desire and power to honour You in all we do and say
Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it?
The Lord replies, “This has happened because my people have abandoned
my instructions; they have refused to obey what I said. Instead, they have
stubbornly followed their own desires.
Jeremiah 9:12b-14a
We agree with You today, God, that if we continue in our own ways after You’ve shown us Your way, that we are walking in deliberate sin and disaster results for us. It’s the result in the lives of individuals and in the corporate lives of a country, a people. Forgive us God for refusing to obey what You say and stubbornly following our own desires. Have mercy upon us.
When we choose our own way over Your’s, we risk having our hearts grow cold and hard and our minds being covered up with lies so it is harder to recognize truth. We won’t prosper, and we will forfeit so much blessing You have in mind for us. Spare us God from becoming foolish and living like utter fools.
They knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him
thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As
a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they
instead became utter fools.
Romans 1:21-22
And so today we who call ourselves Your people, humble ourselves and pray and seek Your face. We turn from our wicked ways, confident that You hear us from heaven, forgive our sins and will heal our land.
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and
pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear
from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
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