Confession Prayer Week of June 23, 2024

Call to Confession: 

As we enter into a time of confession together, let’s prepare our hearts by hearing these words from Luke 18:

He (Jesus) also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Prayer of Confession: 

Gracious Heavenly Father, your name is love, so in love receive our prayers. Our sin is real, and hard, and heartbreaking, and abounds even when we try to control it on our own. But where sin abounds, so your grace is even more abundant. Forgive us for the ways we try to hold it and manage it on our own instead of come to you.

Help us to know you are a safe place, that you’ve called us your own, and offer us the kind of comfort we can only find in you. When we wander and rebel, draw us back time and time again to marvel at your endless patience and undying love. Your grace rushes toward us like a mighty river from heaven; help us turn toward it confidently. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: 

In the scriptures we find assurances of our forgiveness and encouragement in our walk. So hear these words from Ephesians 2 and rest in their truth for us…

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.