Prayer of Confession (on trial...)
O God, you assure us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made; but we sometimes find difficulty in trusting your assurance. We try to improve ourselves to be better, to be best; we feel hopeless when we cannot meet the world’s impossible standards of beauty and achievement. We undervalue the strength and power we can use to make a difference in our lives and in the lives of others; under the guise of humility we deny that we are made in your perfect image. We struggle with our guilty feelings when we do not live up to your grace. We envy, we covet, we are achingly aware of our imperfections and flaws.
O God, you assure us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that you know us; but we feel alone and alienated – thinking that no one looks at us, no one cares about us. Let us remember that you are always close to us, moving us to find a place of peacefulness and persuading us to let go of burdens and the emotional dregs and sediments which block your spirit from refreshing our souls.
O God, you assure us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made; but we see ourselves like sedimentary layers – layer by layer we dig into the depths, finding the darker ground under our scratched surfaces - our sinfulness, our despair, our feelings of helplessness.
O God, you assure us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made; and we are so smug about it that we don’t look up and out and around to appreciate how all of your creation is equally fearfully and wonderfully made. Teach us to resist exploitation for our own gain.
O Spirit of the Living God, present with us now, enter us, body, mind and spirit and touch us to be wholeness so that we can give praises and thanks to you, our Creator, for who we are, your creation, made in your image, wonderfully and fearfully and that we live fearlessly and with gratitude, blessing our every day, every moment which shines with your light.
We thank you for this season – where the energy of creation and fruitfulness fill the whole space of the earth and sky and You let us know that every gentle and natural touch of yours keeps and preserves the whole creation to be itself, perfect and beautiful.
We praise and give thanks to you for every wonderful and awe-filled discovery we find whenever we encounter your creation. We sing the amazement of living in a world of lakes, trees, buzzing bees, speckled trout, dappled apples, golden corn, white-capped ocean, cockles and mussels, salmon and bass, wind through the grass, small babies and children’s laughter … and how all you have created are equally amazing and fearfully and wonderfully made. And we humbly receive your assurance in our hearts that we, too, are fearfully and wonderfully made by the same Creator, you, the artist. You see us as who we are. You examine us and know us, and love us. Thank you God.
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