assurance of pardon
Prayer of Confession
God who knows each heart, you call us to walk by faith and not by sight, giving us new vision that goes deeper than outward appearance; yet how often we remain blind, returning to a human point of view, relying instead on our society’s signs of right or wrong, success or failure. We miss your warning signals of internal corruption or moral deficiency in those in whom we put our trust.
Forgive us, O God. Become our Vision as we keep learning to walk by faith. Teach us to observe ourselves and others as you do, with prudence and wisdom as well as compassion and love, so that your deeper way of seeing might grow within us and among us, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Silent Prayer
Assurance of Grace
Just as Paul reminded the Corinthians of their new way of seeing, he told them that anyone in Christ is a new creation, that everything old is passed away, and all is made new!
In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.Thanks be to God.
prayer of confession and assurance of pardon – wash and be clean
God of grace, you call us to wash and be clean,
but we are proud.
You offer us a simple solution to our dis-ease,
but we think we are important enough for wonders and grand acts.
In those times when our pride blocks our sight of your graciousness,
wash the scales from our eyes, that we may see.
For those times we grow too sure of our own importance,
forgive us.
…time of silent prayer…
Here is Good News! God is willing to cleanse us from our pride, our blindness, our stubborn insistence on having things “our way”. Through God’s grace we are washed and forgiven.
Thanks be to God! Hallelujah! Amen.
submitted by Gord Waldie, St. Paul’s United Church, Grande Prairie, Alberta
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