Praying To Acknowledge Our Sins and Set Things Right With God

 God won’t stop us from making bad choices.  His desire for us to experience true life and love is a choice He gives us. He will never take that choice away by making us powerless robots who mindlessly do what He commands. 

When we make a mess of things God doesn’t abandon us because it is not God’s will that any of us should die in sin.  It is God’s desire that every person will find their way to life with Him and experience the joy of His unfailing love. 

The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.  2 Peter 3:9

How do we make the move out of the mess into the care of God?  We pray!  We admit that we have not done what is right and that God has spared our lives.  We turn away from our sin and we turn to God for forgiveness and healing.  The amazing and joyful truth is that when we pray, God will answer.  God will set things right.  We will be set free.  We will find what we have been searching for.

When they pray, God will answer; they will worship God with joy; God will set things right for them again. Each one will say in public, “I have sinned.  I have not done right, but God spared me. He kept me from going to the world of the dead, and I am still alive.”  Job 33:26-28

How is God able to do this?  He sent Jesus into the world to die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin.  As we trust what Jesus has done for us and ask for forgiveness each time we stumble, God forgives us and gives us new life.  That’s always been His plan – not to condemn and judge us but to give us new life that lasts forever.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him.  John 3:16-17

One of the reason so many churches include a prayer of confession in their Sunday service is that we all need to take a moment, on a regular basis, to look at our hearts and lives and get honest with God about where we’ve gone wrong and asking His help to set things right.

Let’s pray in that way on this Sunday.

Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo.  Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.  Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

God our Father, we come to you in sorrow for our sins, for turning away from you, and ignoring your will for our lives:  Father, forgive us. Save us and help us.

For behaving just as we wish, without thinking of you: Father, forgive us. Save us and help us.

For failing you by what we do, and think and say:  Father, forgive us. Save us and help us.

For letting ourselves be drawn away from you by temptations in the world about us: Father, forgive us. Save us and help us.

For living as if we were ashamed to belong to your Son:  Father, forgive us. Save us and help us.

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep.  We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.  We have offended against Your holy laws.  We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is nothing good in us.  O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.  Spare those, O God, who confess their faults.  Restore those who are penitent according to Your promises declared unto men in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Grant that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of His name. Amen

May God who loved the world so much that he sent his Son to be our Saviour forgive us our sins and make us holy to serve him.  May He open our eyes to His truth, strengthen us to His will and give us the joy of his kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord

This is a day of forgiveness, healing, and restoration with the Living God.  Let’s live in that joy.  Have a great day.