O God,
Do hear our cry, and look down from your holy height with compassion for we are poor sinners, humbled low and to the dust.
We confess to you that all too frequently we have had sleepy souls. We have been dull to the things of God and deadened to your holy ordinances. And we pray that you would forgive us or this. And we pray that you would pardon us for having conducted drowsy ministries.
O how we have lacked the fervency that is expected of us as watchmen. We have been like the disciples in the garden. We have failed to be diligent in prayer and earnestness in presenting our supplications.
Much to our shame we must also confess that this lethargy has also invaded your pulpit. Time after time we have moved our mouths to speak words, but we have not let ourselves be moved by your word. We know you can use passionless preaching—because you are God and your Word is guided by your Spirit—but that does not take away the offensiveness of our inattentiveness and the scarcity of our zeal.
But we acknowledge this sin before you, and we pray that you would cover it and all the others that accompany it. We pray that we might know the sure salvation that is in Christ, and the full pardon that comes through his blood. I pray that you might indeed impress it upon our hearts that we might be more apt to pass it on to our fellow sinners. Give us o God, a fresh taste of your grace, that we might go forth and declare it aboard. Renew our hearts and give us a holy fanaticism that burns ever so keenly.
