Thursday, July 29, 2010

Final Lines: Confession of Sin

Most merciful God,

We confess that we have sinned against you

in thought, word and deed,

by what we have done,

and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved You with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

We are truly sorry

and we humbly repent.

For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ,

have mercy on us and forgive us,

that we may delight in Your will

and walk in Your ways

to the glory of Your name

Amen.

Once God has forgiven us and we have received his forgiveness, then we are free to “delight in Your will.” God’s will for us is always far better than anything we could ask or think. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” No matter what our dreams, desires or plans for our lives, God’s will far exceed anything we could hope for or imagine. Why wouldn’t we want to delight in His will for us?

Once we know His will for our life, then the next obvious step is to walk in that will – to “walk in Your ways.” This should be an easy step – just listen to what He tells us and be obedient to what He says do. But in today’s world, there are far too many distractions that would tell us – “that’s not the right way;” or “that will never get you to the top.” When we listen to those voices instead of the voice of our Shepherd, we are off the path God has set before us and we end up going back to line one and we start all over again. We must listen carefully at all times to make sure we hear the right Voice.

It stands to reason that when we hear that Voice and walk in the ways in which He tells us, then He should receive the glory for our victorious lives. After all, He is the One who made that victorious life possible!

Selah.







Maranatha!

© 2010 Edwina E. Cowgill

2 comments:

quietspirit said...

Edwina:
Having grown up in a denomination that seemed to not deal with confession of sin, except to God, I find these thoughts intriguing and very deep. They make me think. I want to draw closer to God because of the words and your thoughts. Anything that makes me think is good thing. THANK YOU.

Edwina said...

Celeste,

I'm so pleased that God used my meanderings to make you think. I pray in the coming days He will give you revelation knowledge on this topic.

Blessings,
Edwina