Lord, I thank you for the sure and steady anchor
Of your sovereign rule over my life.
But I have to admit that my life often feels like it's drifting,
Out of control, and some days in downright in chaos.
My circumstances often overwhelm me
With obstacles that seem to mushroom
Into tidal waves that would swamp me.
And my own heart often betrays me
With accusations that ring true:
Reminding me of my incompetence,
Of my failings and foolish choices.
Remind me today, Father
That the promise of your anchor of strength
Comes not to those who prove themselves worthy of it,
But to those who desperately cry out for it.
Remind me that all I need is need,
And help me to approach you
Not with promises of a better obedience
Or the commitment to love you better
But simply with the empty hands of need.
And point my heart to the cross
Where I can see clearly once again
That Jesus has died to pay for every misdeed of my life,
That my debt and foolishness has been paid in full,
And the full acceptance my penance hopes to create
Has already been won for me
By my Champion and Brother, Jesus.
Child, I understand that guilt and shame
Can fill you with desires to atone for your sins.
But all the efforts in the world
Could never erase the stain upon your heart.
But what you could never do, I have done!
When you were dead in your sins
And in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
I brought you to life through my Son, Jesus.
And so I can now forgive you of your sins,
And cancel the charge of legal indebtedness,
Which stood against you and condemned you.
I have taken away all that condemnation
By nailing it to the cross.
I even made a public spectacle
Of your enemies that would rightly accuse you,
By nailing those accusations to the cross.
So never make light of my sacrifice
By trying to atone for your own sins.
Never wallow in guilt and shame
As a form of self-penance.
But rest in my promise
That you who were once dead in your sins
Have now been made alive in Christ.
As my redeemed, loved, beautiful children.
Father your faithfulness to me has indeed been great!
As I look back over my life
I can never see a time when you abandoned me
Or failed to provide exactly what I needed.
And that makes my current fears all the more foolish.
Do I really believe that you will abandon me this time?
Do I really believe you can't see – that you don’t know?
That you can't provide what I need today?
And yet, I confess those fears.
I acknowledge that I trust you more in my rear view mirror
Than I do as I gaze out on my life today.
Help me to remember that you are always good.
Help me to see that you have turned the brokenness of my past
Into harvests of growth and trust and assurance.
And give me the heart to believe
That you are doing that very same thing in my life today.
Even if I can't see it.
Help me to turn my heart from the answers I desire
To the One who is the greatest desire of my heart.
That you might satisfy me with yourself
And not with my meager dreams and wishes.
Child, I understand that you live in a world of commodities,
Where goods of equal value are exchanged.
And that makes my grace seem like a commodity
That you need to step up to contribute yourself.
But I want you to know that my grace cannot be bartered.
Nor can it be enhanced to with your moral choices.
My grace is only grace because it's grace.
If I loved you because of anything
Then my love would no longer be free.
As I have told my people for thousands of years,
I love you because I love you because I love you.
And that is the only “because” you will ever hear.
You are mine!
I have bought you with the precious blood of my Son, Jesus
And I will never let you go!
Stand amazed and rejoice
That my love for you today is unconditional
And my grace is free to those who ask.
Father, if there's anything I can readily admit this morning
It's how powerless I am to deal with the struggles that I'm facing.
I have circumstances that are overwhelming me right now.
I have relationships in shambles.
And my heart constantly accuses me of failures.
Though I often feel crushed under the weight
Of problems I can't manage
I learn to paste on a smile and say “fine”.
Because I don’t want my failings
To expose just how broken I feel.
But those lies only make me feel more lonely and isolated.
They make me feel as if I'm the only one
Who is unable to keep up.
And it adds to the weight of accusation and failure.
Father help me to see that the end of myself
Is the beginning of your power.
Lead me to see that I was not designed to be self-sufficient
But that my weakness is the place where your power is seen.
Help me to run TO you in my weakness
Rather than FROM you in my own quests for strength.
And show me how your power restores my heart
Through the weakness of dependency
Rather than through the delusions of strength.
Child, I know how weak and needy you are.
In fact, I know it even more than you do.
And I know your heart longs for the strength
To not be so messy and broken.
But the path to healing doesn’t come
Through the power of pulling yourself together:
You're not actually capable of that!
Rather, your healing comes from the dependence
That rests upon my mercy and grace.
And I allow and use the weakness of your life
To drive you deeper and deeper into my arms of rescue.
My heart longs for your healing
Even more deeply than you do.
And I promise to be faithful
To carry on that work of transformation
Until the day my Son Jesus returns.
Then you will experience the full healing
That is now yours by declaration,
And you will see me face to face.
In that day I will wipe every tear from your eyes.
And there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
For the current world of brokenness will pass away.
Blessed are those who wash their robes in the blood of my Son,
That they may have the right to the tree of life
And may go through the gates into the city of God.
Father, in my head I know that you will
Walk with me through the valley of the shadow of death
And that I don’t need to fear any evil.
Because you are with me.
But though I know it, I don’t always believe it.
At least not in the moments of struggle and pain.
There are certain circumstances
That turn my faith into jelly
And it melts my heart with fear.
As a result, my first reaction is often to panic!
I'm a schemer by nature
And my mind is constantly racing
To try and figure a way out of these hard times.
Forgive me for failing to see your goodness
Even in the midst of seasons I don’t like.
Forgive me for assuming
That you won't bring any good out of this pain.
Lead my heart to see that you are not only powerful enough
But you are good enough
To be working in every situation
For a good beyond my wildest dreams.
Father, I now bring before you my moments of panic,
My seasons of scheming,
And the lies that have led me to fear…
Child, you need me far more than you realize.
Though your sins have been paid in full
By the sacrificial life and death of my Son
Without my constant grace,
You would never be able to believe it.
So please stop trying to get your spiritual act together.
Dismiss the accusations of your heart
That tell you you're not good enough.
Rid your mind of the very thought
That your seasons of despair are my punishment.
And continue to cry out to me every day
For the grace that you need
To believe – to see – to rest in
The promise of my love to you.
That's what I want from you!
I don’t want your resolutions of a better life.
I long for you to rest in my resurrection power,
A power that not only raised my Son from the dead
But the very same power that will
Enable you to stand with confidence
No matter what you're facing.
So hear my good news that I proclaim over you today:
You are my beloved child.
And I am very pleased with you.
The Lord your God is with you,
I am the Mighty Warrior who saves.
And I take great delight in you;
In my love I will no longer rebuke you,
But I will rejoice over you with singing.
Father, the heavens declare your glory;
The skies proclaim the work of your hands.
You have created everything that is,
And have designed it according to your own glory.
And yet, day after day, I act as if my life is my own.
I think of my time as being my own;
My money, my decisions, my priorities,
Everything is filtered through the grid of me,
As if I own my own life.
Father, forgive me for failing to see every breath as a gift,
Forgive me for putting myself on the grand stage of life,
And for treating you like a genie
Whose job is to make MY life and MY goals come to pass.
Teach me to pattern my life according to your purposes for me.,
Lead me to act as a wise steward rather than a proud owner,
Help me to live a life under your authority
As I live humbly in your world I had no part in creating.
Father, you pronounced everything you made as good
And when I see the beauty of creation,
Praising you the way it was designed
I sometimes feel left out,
Because my life doesn't praise you the way I ought.
Lead my heart back to re-Creator of life, Jesus
That I might once again experience the blessing
Of being your “good” creation with whom you are pleased.
Child, the lie of your own self-importance
Has consumed your heart
And though I could crush that rebellion
I chose to crush the lie instead.
I defeated the lie that put you as center stage
By sending my own Son – in weakness.
Though he was the Creator of the universe
He chose to become nothing,
Taking on the weight of your sinful debt.
What you have always wished in your heart to be:
Competent, worthy, beautiful, and loved
I earned by living and dying in your place
And I have now credited that to your account.
As a result, you once again have the blessing of God.
My favor rests upon you.
You are my beloved child in whom I am well-pleased.
The curse of sin and your delusions of grandeur
No longer have any hold on you!
I have set you free from your own self-importance,
And have made you more loved and valuable to me
Than all your deluded dreams could have ever produced.
You are now free from the burden of self!
You are free from the bondage to achievement!
You are free from fears of failure!
Child, you are free!
Father, like the rest of your creation
I was made to worship you.
I was designed to find my heart’s deepest desires
Satisfied in you alone.
And though I know this,
My heart often runs astray.
I act as if my life is my own.
And I begin to chase after my own dreams.
And when I do,
It turns those promises of life apart from you
Into the shadowy brokenness
Of frustration and disillusionment.
All those promises of life only bring death.
The delusions of joy and contentment
Leave me frustrated, bitter, sad and lonely.
And though my heart often believes
That maybe I can get it right next time,
Maybe this new thing can deliver,
I know that no life can be found apart from you.
Forgive me for pursuing darkness
Under the delusion of life.
Forgive me for believing that
Life can be found in my own dreams.
And like the prodigal,
Lead my heart back to the home of your presence
Let me hear the rest of your “well done”
As I lean into the life that you have purchased for me.
Child, this is your only comfort in life and in death:
That you are not your own,
But belong body and soul, in life and in death
To your faithful Savior, my Son, Jesus Christ.
I have fully paid for all your sins with my precious blood,
And have set you free from all the power of the devil.
Disappointment, disillusionment, even death
No longer have any hold over you.
Even more, I promise to watch over you in such a way
That not a hair can fall from your head
Apart from my will and purpose;
In fact, all things MUST work together for your salvation.
Because you belong to me.
And by my Holy Spirit
I give you assurance – real assurance - of eternal life
And with it I give you a heart that makes you
Wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on
To live for me.
So child, rejoice that the lies of sin and death
No longer hold you in their grip!
I have killed death – killed the delusion of life apart from me
And this is the beginning of new life in me today!
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory in the heavens.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of us, human beings that you care for us? You have made us a little lower than the angels
and crowned us with glory and honor.
You made us rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under our feet.
And yet, I am a poor steward of your creation.
I often act like I'm an owner of my life and my world.
And I manage it in ways that benefit me.
I often treat my fellow image bearers
As if they have no more value
Than how they can serve me and build me up.
I am driven to find beauty and joy
In the reflections of your beauty
That I can control
Rather than in you, whom I can't.
Truly your image in me has been distorted by my rebellion.
And I have forgotten my role as your representative here on earth.
Forgive me building your world around me and my dreams.
I cry out for the grace to renew that image in me
That you have promised your Spirit will restore.
Child, though your heart has tainted my image in you
I only see beauty and glory in your reflection.
Your sins are paid in full by the life and death of my Son,
And all the guilty stains of your rebellion are washed away.
And here's my promise to you
I will place my Spirit within you
So that you are enabled more and more enjoy the experience
Of being transformed into my image
With ever-increasing glory.
And I promise not to give up on you
But to carry through to completion
That good work that I've already begun in you.
One day you will experience the full joy
Of being made in my image
And we will laugh and dance together
In the eternal kingdom that I am preparing for you.
But until that time
I will continue to point your guilty heart
To the blood of my Son, Jesus
Who has washed all your sins away.
Father, you are my Creator
And I am made after your image,
Designed with glory and honor
To reflect your beauty.
And yet that glory wasn’t enough for me.
Being like you didn’t satisfy me.
And I confess today that, in my pride
I wanted to be you!
In fact, I still want to be my own god.
And as a result,
I have set myself up as judge of the world and the people around me.
I want to be the one who decides
What is the good life
And what pains need to be avoided.
I believe that I can define life and success on my own terms.
And my world celebrates me when I do.
Truly I have become addicted to myself.
Forgive the foolish pride
That thinks the created is the Creator.
Forgive the presumption
That the finite knows better than the Infinite.
And renew my heart to reflect more and more
The beauty of my Maker
And all you designed me to be,
Instead of the cheap, broken substitutes
That I've learned to put up with.
Child, you are the pinnacle of my creation,
The joy and delight of my heart.
And I created you for relationship with me
So that we could dance and laugh together
In the sweetness of intimacy.
I know how alluring the alternatives of this world can be.
But they are mere images that reflect my glory
And I am offering you the real thing: Me!
Though your rebellion is great
My grace is greater still.
And though it comes to you at no cost,
It costs you everything you have:
The death of the dream that you can find life apart from me.
So come to me with the empty hands of need
As you die to the illusions of life on your own.
Rest in the arms that require no achievement on your part,
And drink in the love and acceptance I offer to you
Through the sure and complete efforts of your elder brother, Jesus.
Lord, I confess that in my normal way of thinking
You're a good, good Father when you give me what I want,
When the desires of my heart are rich and satisfied.
And you're not so good a Father
When you withhold my good from me
And lay any challenge
To my longings for independent living.
Lord, I know I need your help and guidance,
But I want it on my terms
And my terms always keep me somewhat in control.
Forgive me for believing the lie that life can be found
Apart from your sovereign control.
Forgive me for my anger and impatience
When you don’t grant my every desire.
And lead me to see that you not only know what’s best
But that you, yourself, are that best,
That I was made for satisfaction in you alone
And not from the many gifts that proceed from your goodness.
Father, I now confess these lies of unbelief…
Child, you really are a mess
And I know you know this!
But the good news is
You're even more messed up than you realize.
If you needed a bit of inspiration, you could look to the rainbow.
If you needed help and guidance, I already gave you my Word.
But you need far more than a little boost:
You need to be rescued!
Motivation and help could never give your heart
What it needs to stand before me.
You need a new heart!
One that's not only been cleansed from the stains of your sin
But that has a new desire to follow after me.
And that is exactly what I have given you!
For I have sprinkled clean water on you, and you are clean;
I have cleansed you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
And I have given you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I have removed from you your heart of stone
And have given you a heart of flesh.
And I have put my Spirit in you
To move your heart to follow my decrees
And to keep my laws.
So child, stop looking at another poor performance on your part – again!
And look to my Son, your Rescuer
Who has given you everything you need
To stand before me today – righteous and clean!
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