Prayers of Confession on Blessing
Holy God, we confess we are selfish people. We are so inwardly focused that we often do not consider the needs of those around us. You call us to be generous because You have been so generous with us. We are blessed to be a blessing, but we tend to hoard our blessings in fear. We say we trust You for all things, but our lives demonstrate a lack of this type of trust. Help us live generously. Help us consider others. Help us stop living in fear. Through the power of the Jesus and with the help of the Holy Spirit we ask these things, Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
Anointed Worship
Anointed One,
Heal our stingy, selfish ways
Silence our accusations
End the worship wars
The congregation is invited to offer their own prayers of confession silently
We remember our faithful sister
Her actions
Her witness
Make us like her
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us
So we may worship you in Spirit and truth
Saturate us in the oil of gladness
So we may adore you with abandon
Draw us into intimacy and extravagance
Unashamed and alive with our offering
The congregation is invited to offer their own prayers of praise and thanksgiving, silently or aloud
Anointed Worship © 2020 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Gracious God, you shower us with so many blessings, yet we struggle to share them with others. You love a cheerful giver, but we sometimes give grudgingly. We forget that all we have is yours, and that you can use our gifts to bless the whole world. Give us generous hearts which long to share our bounty, giving extravagantly, loving at great risk, and working for justice in seemingly impossible situations. Forgive us for clutching too tightly what has always been yours in the first place. Pardon us for this and all of our sins, as we continue to confess in silence…
Silent Prayer
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Submitted by Chip Hardwick
Almighty God, you bless us so richly. You renew us and give us new life. You equip us with the gifts of your Spirit. You give us an amazing calling to follow you each day. But we fail to use the gifts that you’ve given us. We complain that we don’t have enough. We covet and lust after things we don’t need. Please help us to see how you’ve already blessed us with your gifts as we silently confess our sins to you now.…
Submitted by Austin D. Hill
Lord, we believe your Word when you say that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. You have given us all that we need to live faithfully as your chosen people. But just as often as we turn to you to fill us up, we turn to other places for blessing. We turn to our power or our money or perhaps even our families, instead of resting and relying on You. When we do turn to you, we often try to force our spiritual growth, when all that is needed is to meditate on your great love for us. That is where transformation happens. Help us to turn to you, to lean into you, first and foremost, for our spiritual needs and desires. And may we see your face and your love for us when we do.
Amen.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
(Prayer of Adoration)
Lord – You are good …and Your goodness knows no bounds.
When we were lost, You sought us out,
found us and brought us home.
When we were alone, You came near to us,
and You gave us a new circle of friends and family.
Each breath we take, each sunrise we see,
Each heartbeat we feel and each song we sing or hear –
All are gifts from You.
(Prayer of Confession)
Yet, we’ve grown complacent in Your blessings:
Taking them for granted, rather than as signs of Your grace;
Keeping them for ourselves, rather than using them to bless others.
Forgive our selfish hearts and closed fists.
Forgive our self-importance
that leads us to take ourselves too seriously,
to take You too lightly and to forget others altogether.
Forgive us what we’re too embarrassed to name out loud,
As you hear the silent confessions of our hearts and the whispers of our souls … [Silence] AMEN.
Selected from and inspired by Psalm 32:1-7
All: O Lord, you declare that the forgiven person is blessed, that the person who has no deceit is blessed. We confess that we have had deceitful hearts, deceitful tongues, deceitful thoughts, and deceitful actions. It feels like our hearts and our bodies waste away when we try to hide our sins from You. You see them all! Forgive our iniquity, and heal our broken hearts. Be a hiding place for us. Calm our troubled hearts, and surround us with your blessed presence because you have forgiven all our sins.
Dustin Ray
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