(Based on a prayer found in the Valley of Vision)
CONFESSION
Father,
As we have thought about your greatness and considered your almighty power—if we’re honest we all see places in our lives where we have diminished your greatness and inflated our own.
We confess that we have tried to live a life that satisfies ourselves without trying to satisfy you. We confess that even when we’ve tried to satisfy you, we have tried to do it in our own strength—so that we might have something to boast in. We confess that we have believed in our own sufficiency, our own capabilities, our own giftings. We have believed in our basic goodness, instead of our basic guilt and neediness before you.
Father, we know confessing all our sin would take more hours than are in a day but hear us in this next moment as we silently confess our individual sins to you.
Father, Help us not to live in our own strength—but to look to Christ and his cross every moment. Help us to know that the life you are calling us to live can only be lived by faith and trust in your provision.
Then let us devote ourselves completely to Jesus—help us to depend on you for every accomplishment of your purposes—for ourselves, our family, our church, our world, and for your kingdom.
In Jesus name we pray,
AMEN
ASSURANCE OF PARDON – 2 Corinthians 5:17-18a
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18, ESV)