Barring my faulty memory, and if I’m not lazy, I want to post prayers on Monday from all over Church History and then throughout the modern day, and then my own. Here, I skipped through all of that and went for one of my own.
Father God, we are a people who understand your promises, who rely on your witness in time, and who live on this side of the incarnation of your Son. We are a people who eagerly await His return while trying to fulfill the mission that has been conveyed to all the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But we often fail, not only out of weakness but out of abject selfishness; seeking our own before your own, playing in the mud of our own sinfulness instead of the glorious castles of your established promises: forgive us, Father.
The sin that so easily besets us, the lusts of this world that so easily distracts us, the weakness that so often depresses us: forgive us, oh God.
But even as we pray for forgiveness, we understand that we have already been lavished with such grace and mercy that we, such a lazy and sinful people, are exalted: clothed in the righteousness of your son; seated in heavenly places; rebuilt and empowered by your Holy Spirit; given all the riches of wisdom and knowledge in Him; and a sealed promise, via your Holy Spirit, to be finally perfected in the image of your Son.
With such over abundant and exorbitant grace we find ourselves clapping inside while weeping outside: you alone are our strength; you alone are our hope; you alone are our all in all.
Fill up our hearts and eyes and mind with the wonder of who you are and what you have done; with your witness in past and present, embolden our faith to stand firm in the face of adversity—from the outside but mostly from within ourselves. Keep working on our stiff necks so that they are not bent ever inward, but upward toward you, where you Son is seated and we—somehow, miraculous—are seated with Him.
Take our prayer Holy Spirit and express it only as you, Oh God, can. This is our prayer, our Father; not of our own power or authority but by the name, power, and authority of our Savior, your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.