Now that school has started up again, I haven't had much time to read, write, or blog. So, this is my first time posting in a while. I could have shared my notes from the various math books I have been reading, but for obvious reasons I decided not to.
O Holy & Merciful Father :
We come to you in Jesus’ name because His name is above all names. We come to you in His righteousness because our own is nothing but filthy rags covered with the stench of our sin. We come to you because the blood of Jesus ever pleads mercy for us who deserve nothing but hell. We come to you because you love us with an everlasting love and you find great joy in our coming…you rejoice in our coming and love loving us. We come to you because—whether we acknowledge it or not, live in the reality of it or not—you are the only one who can help us, the only one who will always love us to yourself, the only one who never fails.
We come to confess that we all too often find Egypt more satisfying than the pilgrim journey to Zion. We confess that we want the securities of this world—money & health & jobs & good grades & fulfilling relationships & circumstance that go our way & people who like us—and really small problems & minimal suffering & little cost and inconvenience in following you. We love so much of what everyone else in this world loves…and I don’t know if we make Jesus look great, show that he’s our greatest treasure. Sometimes I wonder if the spirit of Esau is in us…that is a fearful thing…I pray that we are not Esaus…have mercy on us. And sometimes it’s hard to know if we’re real…if our faith is the saving kind. Come, Spirit, and help us.
Words fail miserably to express our thanks for your mercies that are new everyday—and your love that doesn’t fail and your forgiveness that knows no end and your joy over us that defies any human reason.
So we come today, like we do almost every Lord’s Day…knowing it’s you we need. Will you come to us? Please don’t leave us off or keep your Spirit from us. Our greater fear is that you would not visit us and we not know it. We know our lives need transforming and reforming so that we see and love Christ above everything else. For some of us that’s going to mean salvation—be merciful to those who are still dead in their sin. For others it’s going to mean leaving a lot of self-centered, self-protecting, self-made ideas of what Christianity is. For others it will mean losing something or leaving something or confessing something they’re scared to death to lose or leave or confess. And then there are all the things that we don’t even know to pray for if we are going to come to love you above all.
But this is what we know: you are our God and only Savior. There is none like you and no other that we want. We don’t always know what that looks like or means, but we know it’s true. You are life and love and joy and peace and contentment and health and happiness and rest and forgiveness and mercy and righteousness and the greatest pleasure we could ever know. Our minds deceive us, our bodies are traitors, our hearts wander, the world is set against us, Satan is our merciless enemy, and many of us are weary…finding it hard to leave the rival loves and throw off the clinging sins and fix our gaze on Jesus. So we come…just as we are, having no where else to go and wanting no where else to go…you and you alone have the words of eternal life. For your name’s sake, so Jesus is exalted, for your pleasure…we plead that you will visit us by Word, Spirit an Sacrament this Lord’s Day. May it be a happy and holy day because you have come to commune with your people. Hear our prayer and say “Yes” to everything that glorifies your name and cause us to find our greatest joy there. Grant us the gift of repentance and the desire of confession…may we humbly, freely, happily come to you knowing you are our God and we will always be met with mercy so that we may receive grace to help in our time of need. And we need you.
