Prayers of Confession on Jesus
Adapted from Proverbs 24:1-2, 5-6
Pastor: “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.”
All: Forgive me, O God, for I have envied evil people who have more than I do. I have desired their comfort and their toys and their easy living more than I have desired your glory. Forgive me by the power of Jesus’ blood.
Pastor: “A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.”
All: Give me wisdom, O God, to trust in the Gospel. Help me to wage war against Satan, sin, and death through the power of the Holy Spirit. Give my Christian brothers and sisters victory in our fight of faith.
Submitted by Dustin Ray
Adapted from Phillipians 2
Jesus, though you were in very nature God, you did not consider equality with God as something to be used to your own advantage. Rather, you humbled yourself, you made yourself nothing. Lord, you are the ultimate example for us, but we ignore it. We seek our own bet interests and puff ourselves up with pride. Please humble us as we silently confess our sins to you now…
Submitted by Austin D. Hill
Adapted from “Spiritual Helps” in The Valley of Vision
Pastor: Eternal Father, it is amazing love, that you sent your Son to suffer in my place, that you have given me your Holy Spirit to teach, comfort, and guide me. Because of Jesus’ death in my place, you have forgiven me, a wretched sinner.
All: May my hard heart experience your pity, not your wrath. Although I am prone to evil, dead to goodness, and resist the prompting of your Spirit, do not abandon me. Continue to be gracious!
Pastor: Keep me feeding in the pastures of your delightful Word, rejoicing in Scripture because there you are found. Let all your fatherly dealings with me make me a partaker of your holiness.
All: Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees, and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion.
Submitted by Dustin Ray
Eternal God, in whom we gain strength and hope: We thank You for your incredible love. The height, depth, and width of Your love cannot be measured or comprehended. Yet by trusting in the life, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we may experience it. Praise be to Your Name! Now we confess to You the many times we choose to neither live in Your love, nor to express Your love through our words and actions. We love ourselves instead of loving our neighbors and loving You with all we have and all we are. We focus on our needs and wants; our worries and cares; and our goals and purposes, rather than on Your redeeming and sustaining love. Forgive us, gracious Lord. Free us from our self-centeredness so we may love You and love others, and thus bring honor to Your Name. We pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
Heavenly Father, we come to you acknowledging our own unrighteousness. We know that we fall short of your glory and your desires for us. Still, we know that you love us with the love you have shown in Jesus. Thank you for allowing Jesus’s faithfulness and sacrifice to atone for our sins. We pray these things in his name, and we ask that you hear our prayers as we continue our confession in silence…
Submitted by Allen Thompson
Dear Lord, we praise You and thank You for Your goodness and grace, for creating us and putting us in the world, for dying for us and giving us new life. We confess we do not live as redeemed sinners. We still hesitate to trust in Your loving plan for our lives. Our overwhelming and consuming concern continues to revolve around our own needs rather than those of others. We say we love You with our lips when our hearts are so easily distracted by earthly things. We humbly ask for Your forgiveness. Jesus, help us to hold true to what we have attained by Your grace. We pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
O Father of all creation, who hovered over the deep at the beginning, who spoke light into darkness, who split the heavens open and descended upon the Son of God in the waters of the Jordan, who created us in his image, who declared that each one us is fearfully and wonderfully made; we have forgotten. We have forgotten who we are. Our identity as beloved children has been obscured by a multitude of wrong-doing and wrong-thinking. We have exchanged the truth for a lie. Nevertheless, you have not forgotten us. You have cued up in the baptismal line yourself and entered into the waters with us, to show us our true humanity, our true identity. Forgive us, we pray for our forgetfulness of who we are. Let us not forget our own baptism and that which it signifies. Cleanse us by the power of your Spirit so that we may once again walk in the understanding of that truth.
Scott Bullock
Holy God, Your love is amazing, steady, and unchanging. Your love is relentless, passionate, and astounding. We thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus which has redeemed us and restored us to a right relationship with You. We confess that we take this gift for granted; we fail to grasp the significance of the sacrifice; we continue to live as unredeemed people. Forgive us for our sinfulness. Cleanse us. Restore us. And ignite our hearts with a passion to live for You. We humbly ask, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word[d] with greater boldness and without fear. Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment. What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true; and in that I rejoice.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
Gracious God, your Son Jesus came not be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He is our Good Shepherd, whose leadership is less about the love of power, and more about the power of love. This same Jesus called us to follow Him, to lead as He did, to serve as He served, showing others His Kingdom way of life. But we need your forgiveness for thoughtless words, said without love, for hurried decisions, made without your wisdom, for destructive moments, when anger tore, for selfish motives, when our power wounded another. By your mercy, focus our eyes on you, Lord Jesus, And tune our ears to your Holy Spirit. Let our greatest passion be compassion, our greatest strength be love, So that in leading, we never fail to follow You, Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.
Submitted by Dustin Ray
Lord Jesus Christ, you gave up everything to come down from heaven in order to love and serve us. Unlike you, we find self-sacrifice hard. Most of us look for ways to puff ourselves up, so that we look better in other people’s eyes. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can make ourselves look good in your eyes, too. Send us your Spirit, that we would be more humble. We long to be like you, our loving shepherd, and we thank you for hearing our prayers as we continue to confess in silence…
Silent Prayer
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Submitted by Chip Hardwick
Gracious God, we desire to follow when you call. We long to live according to the ways of Jesus, yet we find ourselves stumbling. Forgive us for the times we have ignored your call to follow you in the ways of compassion, love, and mercy. As you meet us with your grace and assurance, empower us to move when you call.
Submitted by Laura Murray
| Dear Jesus, | Please forgive me. |
| Thank you for loving me. | Please help me. |
| I have sinned. | Please change me. |
| I have disobeyed my parents. | Please help me love you. |
| I have lied. | Please help me listen to you. |
| I have been selfish. | I love you, Jesus. |
| I have not listened to you. | Thank you for loving me. |
Submitted by Dustin Ray
Loving and forgiving God, we want to answer your invitation to experience a Christ-centered life. Yet all too often, our lives are much more centered around our ourselves than around Jesus. Jesus sends us out to transform the world in love, but we are hesitant. Forgive us for the indifference and even hatred we show to others. Forgive us for forgetting that your Spirit empowers us. Pardon us for these and all of our sins, as we continue to confess in silence…
Silent Prayer
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Submitted by Chip Hardwick
In the days of the early church, believers affirmed their faith by saying, “Jesus is Lord.” We give lip-service to that same affirmation, but find it difficult to surrender control of our lives. Instead of honoring You as Lord, we act as the master of our own souls. Forgive us, and remind us that above all names, Your Name is holy, Your yoke is easy, Your burden is light. Call us forth to receive Your mercy and to walk in the joy of following You. We pray these things in the Name above all names: the Name of Jesus. Amen.
Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church
Lord Jesus Christ, you call us to high standards, and we continuously fall short. You tell us to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile; to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Not only do we fail to comply with these commands, we find them so outlandish that we don’t even try to live up to them. Forgive us for our failures and for our fatigue; for our stubbornness and for our sin. Hear us now as we continue to confess our sins in silence…
Silent Prayer
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Submitted by Chip Hardwick
Gracious God, we desire to follow when you call. We long to live according to the ways of Jesus, yet we find ourselves stumbling. Forgive us for the times we have ignored your call to follow you in the ways of compassion, love, and mercy. As you meet us with your grace and assurance, empower us to move when you call.
Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
Jesus, you are our peace
You create it
You bring us near
Without you there is
No safety
No belonging
No nurturing
No identity rooted beyond this dust
Without you we are
Anchorless
Strangers, Aliens,
Outsiders, Outcasts, Orphaned
Our need is so deep, so desperate
So beyond us
It took flesh, your flesh to make peace
The congregation offers silent prayers of confession
Lisa Degrenia, www.revlisad.com
Based on Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus says, “Are you tired? Burned out? Worn out? Come to me.”
He promises rest.
When we come before God and confess our sins,
We are not only handing over those burdens,
We are asking Jesus to give us rest.
Listen to the Messiah.
In this time of confession,
allow him to take those burdens away.
Ellen R. Dawson
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