Confession Prayer Week of September 8, 2024

Call to Confession: 

As we enter into a time of confession together, let’s prepare our hearts by hearing these words from 1 John 4:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Prayer of Confession: 

Loving Heavenly Father,

We confess to you how often we take your love for granted. When we do this we often fail to love and forgive others as we have been loved and forgiven in Christ. Forgive us for the ways we hold onto bitterness and resentment instead of mercy and peacemaking. 

Holy Spirit of our living God, help us to repent daily, coming to you again and again as we recognize our need for you. Give us your wisdom of how to build relationships according to your love, instead of our limited view of it. We thank you for continuing to draw us closer to you, and giving us a way to keep growing in how we show your love to others as we understand more of you. 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 the continuation of these words in 1 John 4 and rest in their truth for us…

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.