Prayers of Confession on Crying out to God
Adapted from Psalm 130:1-6
People: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
Dustin Ray
Inspired by Psalm 130
Out of the depths, we cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear our voice. Let your ears be attentive to our cries for mercy. Living in frailty and weakness with adversity in our path, we too often buckle in despair. We doubt your goodness. We seek crutches of our own design aimed at comfort and relief, but which do nothing to heal or restore. In our pain, we deny the greater story that has been told and is being told by the resurrection of our Lord. Though our bodies waste away, we will live power of the Spirit at work within us. Forgive us for our faltering faith in these momentary and fleeting troubles and forgetting the greater story of your resurrection life. Amen.
Scott Bullock
Adapted from Psalm 10 & Romans 7:21-25
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand.
Forget not the afflicted.
We call to you in our sorrow and frustration,
Lord God, eternal, everlasting God.
Why do you stand so far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
You are our God, even if we have ignored you!
Arise, O Lord; O God, we cry to you.
It looks like evil is winning out.
Even in our own lives sin keeps winning the battles.
“So I find it to be a law, that when I want to do right,
Evil lies close at hand…making me captive to sin
…wretched man that I am.”
Have mercy on us, O God,
For we are sinners, captives to sin, enslaved by sin!
Hughes Oliphant Old. Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers (Kindle Locations 958-960).
Adapted from Psalm 22
Our God, our God
Have you really forsaken us?
Why are you so far away from where we need you?
Why do you not pay attention to what seems to us
So alarming?
Why are you so otherworldly?
Day and night we have cried to you,
And you do not seem to answer.
Adapted from Psalm 30
Out of the depths I cry to you, oh Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
If you, oh Lord, kept a record of sins,
Oh Lord, who could stand.
But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than watchmen wait for the morning.
O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, love
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Amen.
Bud Thoreen
Dear Heavenly Father, We are grateful that we can come to You at any time, about anything. We know that You listen to the earnest cries of our hearts. We know that You have great power; You are the Creator of heaven and earth. Yet, at times, we are still prone to doubt. Sometimes we are skeptical that our prayers can even be answered. Our earthly minds cannot comprehend a resolution. Nothing seems to have worked and our situation starts to seem hopeless. Lord, we confess to You our disbelief, And ask for Your help. Have mercy on us in our doubts and give us vision and hope for what You will do. Deepen our trust in You, and increase our faith so that we can believe fully again in Your faithfulness. We ask this humbly in Christ’s Holy Name. Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
O God, Holy God,
You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
They trusted and you delivered them.
You are a trustworthy God,
And when we have trusted in you
We have not been disappointed.
O God, trustworthy God,
That is our problem!
We do not always trust you.
We are always afraid that if we follow your ways
We will miss something.
Yet you are holy, and wholly trustworthy.
It is you who brought us from our mother’s wombs.
It is you who kept us safely on her breasts.
O God, our God,
Grant us faith-faith to trust you,
Faith to follow your ways.
Grant us faith in Christ,
For it is in Him and through Him
That we make our prayer to you.
Glory be to you, O God, our God. Amen.
Hughes Oliphant Old. Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Ministers (Kindle Location 966). Kindle Edition.
In the silence, we raise our voice before you. We wonder aloud why you are so far from us when we call. In the agony of our cry, we are reminded that it is we who have wandered from your fold, from the nearness of your love. We, alone, have rebelled against you. We, alone, have turned our backs to your face. We, alone, have closed our ears to your words of correction and comfort. We confess that we are both a people of unclean lips and unclean hearts. Restore unto us this day, the joy of our salvation. Speak to us words of hope, words of healing, and enter into our lives anew. Amen.
Scott Bullock
Merciful God, we confess that we have often failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love. We have not loved our neighbors, and have refused to hear the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray, and free us for joyful obedience; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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