Coming Before God (a prayer)

Father,

We come before You in awe and wonder.
For we can see that Your power is limitless,
Your wisdom far beyond our reach,
Your righteousness is faultless,
and Your love boundless.

We come before You in humility
and with broken and contrite hearts.
For in seeing You as You are,
we have seen ourselves for who we are,
and we cannot deny or escape the reality of our sin,
the depths that it goes,
and the guilt that it deserves.

We come before You in the faith and hope of Jesus Christ, Your Son.
In Him we have redemption.
In Him we are forgiven.
In Him we are washed and made clean.
In Him we are made whole,
restored,
transformed,
and lifted up.

We come before You in joy
because our guilt is gone,
our burdens lifted,
our shame removed,
and our future made certain.
We who are in Christ are united to You and Your Son by Your Spirit, who lives in us and makes us—in some mysterious yet tangible way—makes us participants in Your divine nature.
We are caught up in the perfect love and joy You have between the Son and the Spirit.

We come before You in hope.
For while Your kingdom has come and the redemption of Your people and the world is assured, we live in a time when it is not yet complete. Your enemies have been defeated, but until Jesus comes again the war is not over.
Battles are still being fought.
Evil still claws against the kingdom of Your Son and the work of Your Spirit.
Pain, loss, and brokenness are still realities for us.
We cling to the hope of Your promise that while we are in this world we will have trouble, we can take heart, because You have overcome the world. Evil’s days are numbered and even now unwittingly is transformed into the means by which we see and receive and grow in Your grace and truth.

We come before You in gratitude and thankfulness.
For we see that even in the midst of our enemies You prepare a table for us and anoint our heads with oil and assure us that
Your grace is omnipotent,
that Your steadfast love remains forever,
and that we are fully Yours;
not by works,
or worth,
or gifts,
but because You have chosen to love us and make us Your own.

Grant that no matter what our circumstances—be they ever so good or ever so bad—that we may rest in the reality of the love and grace and life we have in Jesus Christ.