Confession Thursday 12.9.21
8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? - Micah 6:8 (ESV)
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
13 Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. - 1 Peter 2:11-17 (ESV)
Father, forgive us.
Our spirituality has often been just about “us”
and we have embraced the individualism of our culture.
With our freedom we have failed to do good
and have used it to serve ourselves instead of you and others.
We have worked for comfort instead of justice,
practised apathy instead of kindness.
Grant us mercy, O God.
And enable us to walk humbly with you,
loving and serving those around us.
Confession Thursday is a weekly feature of Semper Ref. In keeping with the name of our website, we believe there is no true reformation in individual lives or the life and ministry of the Church apart from true repentance as God calls us to conformity with his word. The promise of the Gospel is not that we can repent deeply enough for God to love us, but that since God loves us he invites us into deep repentance. It is not the strength of our prayer that give us hope, but the fact that Christ is the propitiation of our sin. Because of this, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Unless otherwise noted, all the prayers of confession found here are written by the SemperRef editorial team. Confession Thursday prayers may be reproduced with permission if you cite SemperRef.org as the source.
