Prayer of praise and prayer of confession for our church gathering

Prayer of praise

Father, we praise you because you are filled with compassion. You overflow with compassion and long for sinners to return to you. You desire that all men be saved from your judgment and come to a knowledge of the truth. When we repent and come to you, you run to us, hug us, kiss us, and put a ring on us accepting us as your children when we deserve judgment and slavery to sin. And then you celebrate our salvation! You celebrate our repentance and faith in Christ. You call others in the church and in heaven to celebrate with you when your children come home. For that we praise you and give you thanks. Your compassion is amazing. We praise you because even though we deserve cursing in our sin, you give us blessing in Christ. We love you our great God and Father, because you first loved us and show your love in that when we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Prayer of confession

Father, forgive us for taking sin lightly. Forgive us for taking you lightly and not caring about your holiness. We have prioritized our building our houses and agendas over building your house, your church, and seeking first your kingdom. We have been overly discouraged in our sin rather than receiving your grace, resting in your forgiveness, and pursuing you passionately. Forgive us for starving ourselves by not living by every word that comes out of your mouth. Forgive us for hearing much more of your word than we actually do. Forgive us for not confessing our sins to you and each other more frequently because we'd rather be thought of as holy than actually being holy.

Please forgive us for these sins and others that we'll confess to you now...