Imperishable Inheritance

My Father and my God,

I con­fess that I am a sin­ner.  A per­son so full of sin that I am deserv­ing of noth­ing more than your just and swift wrath.  I have dis­obeyed, slan­dered, and ignored you.  I’m sorry that I live my life as though you don’t exist.  I instead pre­sume upon my own abil­i­ties, tal­ents, and ambi­tions and fail to acknowl­edge that you have given me those things and desire me to use them for your pur­poses and glory.

I con­fess that I am not the man of God I want to be or that you want me to be. I fall prey to sin that grieves your spirit and makes the work your son did on the cross some­thing periph­eral in my daily life.  I con­tinue to fall prey to gos­sip, pride, and I’m con­tin­u­ally “puffed up” and not full of the humil­ity and love shown so aptly in your son.  Help me to under­stand what it means to serve and not to be served.

I con­fess that I pri­or­i­tize other things in my life over com­muning with you and spend­ing time in your holy word.  I love your word, and it con­tin­ues to speak truth into me while con­vict­ing me of my need to con­tinue to pull close to you.  Thank you that your word tells me that you will con­tinue to pur­sue me despite my obsti­nate heart.  Help me to real­ize to not take that for granted but con­tinue to pur­sue after you as well with all of my heart and being.

I con­fess that I don’t under­stand what it meant for your son to become sin on my behalf.  The one who knew no sin took on the full­ness of my iniq­uity and removed it so that I might enter into your pres­ence.  Father help to impress this truth upon me in my every­day life so that I will desire to share the great news of your son sent by you into the world to save sin­ners like me.  Help that to become a real­ity that so engrosses me so much that I can’t think of any­thing else and instead hold every thought cap­tive to your son.

Amen.