[ Today's Readings ]
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
LORD, we want to be reconciled to you. We acknowledge our offense. Our sin is always before us. We recognize that our hearts are not clean. Our best efforts are tarnished. We act well to look good.
Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
It is hard to get past this selfishness. It is hard to only care about the recompense of the Father who sees in secret. Yet somewhere within us you have planted this desire for righteousness. It is a desire for you yourself. And you will nurture this desire within us if we let you. You will help us to close the door to the world, the flesh, and the devil, to all of the external forces that motivate us by tickling our egos, and concern ourselves more and more with what you think.
Help us to approach you with sincerity, LORD, with our whole hearts, with all that we are, with all the desire for you we can find within ourselves.
Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
Let us join together as one people, marked with the sign of the cross, to seek your favor and your face. We live in a world that desperately needs you but without realizing it. We live with hearts that desperately need you that have only glimpsed the depths of our need.
There is special grace in this season to make changes where we were previously stuck.
We know our need to change. Let us put it off no longer.
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment