Join me in lifting this prayer to the Lord, trusting in Him completely as we live and serve this Sunday –
O Lord,
No day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in Your sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a hiding place in Your appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven, Your merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weights me down toward hell,
Your righteousness exalts me to Your throne.
All things in me call for my rejection, all things in You plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice to Your throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear Your voice assuring me:
That by Your stripes I am healed,
That You were bruised for my iniquities,
That You have been made sin for me, that I might be righteous in You,
That my grievous sins, my manifold sins, are all forgiven,
Buried in the ocean of Your concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
Lost, but saved,
Wandering, but found,
Sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to Your cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge, sparkling like crystal,
Flowing clear and unsullied through my wilderness of life.
Thank You, Lord, for Your grace, Your blessing, Your presence, Your peace as I walk with and serve You today.
Help Your servants as we represent You this Lord’s Day – helping others to see the wonders of what You have done
To give us life abundant and eternal by the power of the Spirit and the name of the Son, Jesus Christ – amen.
(This prayer was adapted from “The Broken Heart” in Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, pages 150-151.)
