Opening Prayers/Prayers of Adoration on Confusion
(Prayer of Adoration)
Father God … our Abba:
You seek us with relentless love – coming after us in Your Son, Jesus.
When we are in the pits – You draws us up and out;
When we are broken – You fix us.
When we are lost – You find us.
When we are confused about who we are –
You call us by name and calls us Your own.
With hearts stilled and filled with Your love:
We bring our thanks and praise to You today.
(Prayer of Confession)
Yet – how often we forget who we are as Your children.
We live like we are not Yours but someone else’s;
Like we are not created in Your image,
redeemed by the blood of Your Son,
indwelt by Your very self in the Holy Spirit.
Forgive our wandering hearts, our lusty spirits,
Our self-centered attitudes and selfish actions.
(Prayer of Adoration)
Loving God—Father Son and Holy Spirit—
we come today as thirsty people
to You who are the Spring of Living Water.
We come as hungry people
to You who are the Bread of Heaven.
We come as sinful and lonely people
to You who are the Friend of Sinners.
We come as confused and lost people
to You as our Counselor, who is the Way, the Truth,
and our Pole Star.
With Thomas, we call Your our Lord and our God—
the giver of peace, the source of hope and the reason for our joy;
and that’s why we praise You.
That’s why we worship You.
(Prayer of Confession)
However, … sometimes we forget who You are
and begin to worship ourselves instead:
trusting our wisdom and strength more than Yours,
following our wants and desires more than Yours,
stealing for ourselves the honor and glory that’s Yours alone. We’ve loved ourselves too much,
others too little and You hardly at all.
Forgive us.
Help us to change—to think differently, to speak differently,
and to act differently.
Now, in the quiet of these moments, hear the cries of our hearts
declaring what we’re too ashamed of to say aloud: (silence).
(Assurance of Pardon)
Hear the Good News – Jesus Christ came in to the world to save sinners, like you and like me. By His grace active in your faith in Jesus as savior and Lord, I declare as true that you are forgiven and free from all your sins. Alleluia! AMEN.