Prayers of Confession on Help

Lord, You answer our pleas for help. You draw near to us when we are hurting; You save us when we are crushed by life. Your Psalmists declare it on every page. Yet we often feel abandoned and alone. We wonder where You are in our suffering, We imagine You are distant or distracted. Instead of taking our complaints and fears to You, we often turn away from You in frustration. We choose to rely more on our emotions than on Your promises and Your character. Forgive us for running from You in our trouble and for trusting our current experience more than Your Word. Teach us to trust You—the God revealed in Scripture. Help us lean on You when life is too much. Lord, You are good, and You are pursuing us with mercy. Amen.

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

O my Savior, help me.
I am slow to learn, prone to forget, and weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while the light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust my heart of unbelief.
Make it my highest joy to study you,
meditate on you,
gaze on you,
sit like Mary at your feet,
lean like John on your breast,
appeal like Peter to your love,
count like Paul all things but dung.
I believe, help my unbelief. Amen

Valley of the Vision

God of our hearts, make us aware of our selfish motives. We want too much. We consume too much. We judge too much. We forgive too little. We help too little. We dream too little about living an abundant life with You. We use our power for our own gain. We don’t allow hurt and pain in the world to bother us. We think Your words are meant for someone else. Forgive us God. Make our lives about You, instead of us. Help us to pursue a life led by Your Spirit, and changed by Your mercy and grace. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Call to Confession: As the people of Judah cried out to God in their time of catastrophe, we remember that we, too, can bring our burdens before God. Let us join together in confession, confident that God hears us.

Prayer of Confession: Lord Almighty, we recognize the uncertainty of life. This day might be all we have. Too often we live in fear, hoarding what we do have, unsure of what the future will bring. We look around and see uncertainty, change, discontinuity, and we cling to what was. You are still at work, in us, around us, and through us. Please renew our trust in your faithfulness as we silently confess to you the ways we have stopped trusting you.

Austin D. Hill