Prayers of Confession on Beauty

Gracious God, thank you for the beauty of this world. Sometimes we can get wrapped up in its pain and brokenness so much that we miss its wonders. Today we pause to thank you for the beauty of your creation.

Moreover, we thank you for how you have made so much that is good grow from small, insignificant seeds. Help us to think of the world this way. May we envision the people in our lives in terms of their seed-potential. May we see ourselves not as we are but as the people we are becoming by your grace. Amen.

Taken from Mark D. Roberts, Life for Leaders, a Devotional Resource of the DePree Leadership Center at Fuller Theological Seminary

How great and glorious You are, O God. There is no one like You. You transform our weakness into strength. You forgive our stubbornness and arrogance, and fill us with Your generous wisdom. You turn our errors into stepping stones and our defeats into victories. You create beauty out of the ashes of our sinful nature. Forgive us, Lord, for being silent about Your goodness and for trusting the foolish wisdom of this world. Help us not to give up or give in to the temptations around us and to keep our eyes focused on Your loving grace. In Christ’s Name we pray. Amen.

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Gracious God, for the goodness and beauty of creation we thank you. For the way your creation nurtures and inspires us, we are grateful.

Yet, the more we pay attention to the world, the more we see its brokenness as well as its beauty. We wonder if we can know the world as it is and still love it. In this, as in all things, we need your help.

Even today, Lord, may I see and delight in the beauty of this world. May this draw me near to you with gratitude and wonder. By your Spirit, may I also see the brokenness of the world, not drawing back from that which is painful. Grant me your vision, your compassion. Help me, I pray, to live in the tension of the beautiful and the broken. Help me to know this world truly and to love it, even as you do. Amen.

Taken from Mark D. Roberts, Life for Leaders, a Devotional Resource of the DePree Leadership Center at Fuller Theological Seminary

Each of us, Lord, has failed to fully observe your beauty.

We fall in love with our own image and are left disappointed and alone.

Please be faithful to us, Jesus, even when we turn from You.

We trust that You will be stalwart, our dedicated Savior, to the end.

Lord, as we seek to embrace our neighbors, no matter the loves of their hearts,

help us to see them as You do, with compassion and zeal for their good.

Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for when we have excluded our neighbors

from our hearts or our tables, knowing how deeply You cherish them.

Forgive us now, in the name of Jesus and for his glory,

and may your face be shown vibrantly where we have failed to show ours.

Submitted by Charles Teixeira