Gracious and Redeeming God,
We who are poor sinners, come to you this morning with thankful hearts. Because of Christ’s victory over sin and death we are drawn into your presence. We acknowledge that there is no hope for us in this world save Christ. All is lost without him.
For this reason we wish you lay our souls at your feet. We ask that the conquest of his cross would be ours. We desire that his empty tomb would be our life.
We know that we have erred and greatly sinned against you. We have lived in accordance with our father Adam, and we have betrayed you like Eve, our mother. Despite our better judgment, we have run off into sin. Indeed our sin is so frequent that our consciences often fail to feel the sting of sin’s guilt.
But yet in our hearts we hear our condemnation. And we bow before our judge to ask for mercy and pardon. We know that those who come to you will by no means be cast out. So we come to you with full assurance of your pardoning grace.
Moreover we are so bold to ask that you might cleanse us from sin. Just as Christ left his grave clothes in the tomb, we pray that we would leave our lives of sin. We pray that you would put to death the misdeeds of the body and create within us new obedience and new life.
Let us not glory in that which is wretched, but let us cling to what is good and pure. Give us hearts to seek your will and the zeal to perform it.
In all things we pray that the world might know that we serve a living Savior and a glorified king. We ask that your work might be accomplished in us for the glory of your name.
For it is in the name of the resurrected Christ that we do pray. Amen.
