Forgive me, Father, for insisting on being independent from you. It hasn’t freed me at all. Instead, it has made me dependent on other people and things: my own strength and wits, flatterers and slanderers, alcohol and food. Forgive me for taking the gifts you have blessed me with and using them for my own ends, at my own convenience. I’m sorry for all the hours, days, and months that I have spent serving myself more than I serve you. I’m sorry for bowing to the things I have acquired while overlooking the needs of your children around me.
You have called me, Lord, and so I come. Forgive my guilt, and release me from shame. I am sorry that I exchanged the garments of salvation and robes of righteousness for the rags of self-righteousness and self-centeredness. Clothe me once again in your mercy! Forgive my disobedience! Heal my defection from you, and restore me to the position of a beloved child in your house. Thank you for overlooking my sins so that I may repent. I believe that you will have mercy on me because you can do anything.
Thank you, Father, for hearing me and accepting my offering. Thank you for consuming it in the blazing fire of your love. Thank you that, in exchange for the dark secrets of my heart, you give me the brightness of your loving and merciful heart. I know I can trust in your love for me. I believe that it is greater than my love for myself. Soften my heart, Father, so that I can receive what you want to plant in me today: love and gentleness, purity and faithfulness.
(Word Among Us -July 2010)