A Prayer

We thank You, Father, for sending Jesus to rescue us from our sins. His advent has made all the difference for us.

Thank You, Father, for the forgiveness of all of our sins. There is now no condemnation for our sins, condemnation that we really do deserve. Your justice is satisfied. No more guilt. How good!

Thank You, Father, that because You sent Jesus, the once crushing power of our sins has been cancelled. It had such control over us, control that we could not overcome. But that is no longer the case. We are freed from that.  We are freed from that because of Jesus.

And thank You, Father, that because You sent Jesus, the day will come when there will be no sin left in us. None. The last remnants of our sin will be removed. It will be completely gone and only be a bad memory. And we will be restored to the true humanity that You originally intended.

We thank You, Father, for these gifts given to us at that first Christmas.

But we must confess, Father, that there are times when we do not believe that these gifts are ours. There are times when we really aren't sure that Jesus has rescued us from our sins, or at least we live that way.

Too often we confess our sins but wonder if You're still mad at us. We think that You must be. No one could forgive just like that, not after the awful thing that we just did.

Too often we settle for life as it is. We think that those sins that trip us up time after time are just the way life is going to be. We really don't think that they could be dealt with and removed.

Too often we let our hope slip away and we find ourselves so very discouraged. We just don't think about what Jesus has promised and provided for us after our resurrection.

Father, forgive us for our unbelief. Forgive us for thinking that Your advent gifts of rescue couldn’t be true. Help us to live as those who know that Jesus has come and that He has actually rescued us from our sins. 

Help us to believe the Gospel so that we can make You look good. And we pray this through Christ our Lord Amen.

Matthew 1.21