Daily Prayer in Lent - Saturday, Week Two

Word for the Season

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart...
Joel 2:12

Word for the Day

Who is there like you,
the God who removes guilt
and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not persist in anger forever,
but delight rather in clemency,
And you will again have compassion on us,
treading underfoot our guilt.
You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins
(see today's readings for Micah 7 )

Reflection

We often fail to trust
in the depth and breadth of God's mercy...
Even having confessed our sins to God
we hold on to our guilt
and punish ourselves
for what God long ago washed away...
We imagine that God is angry with us
when all the while
only his healing mercy and love
pour from his heart into ours...

Prayer
I return to you today, Lord,
burdened still by failings and sins
you pardoned long ago...

Why do I hold on
to what keeps me from your embrace?
Why do I cling to guilt
you removed from my heart
in your kindness and your mercy?
Why do I keep returning to my past
when every day you call me forth
to walk with you to new grace and life?

Help me to swim in your mercy,
to bathe in your kindness,
to fall into the arms of your forgiveness...

Teach me to rejoice in your pardoning of my sins,
to trust that you do not bind me with your anger,
to know that in your compassion I have been set free...

Show me your love in my heart
that I might return to you
no longer burdened by my faults...

I trust you, Lord,
and pray you will trust me
to return to you this Lent, day by day,
with my whole heart...
Amen. 2009LentPostCollection

Image: Gwen Meharg

-ConcordPastor