mourning my sin

Eternal Father,

You are good beyond all thought,

but I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind;

My lips are ready to confess,

but my heart is slow to feel,

and my ways reluctant to amend.

I bring my soul to you;

break it, wound it, bend it, mold it.

Unmask to me sin’s deformity,

that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it.

My natural abilities have been a weapon of revolt against you;

as a rebel I have misused my strength,

and served the foul adversary of your kingdom.

Give me grace to mourn my unconscious folly.

Grant me to know that the way of transgressors is hard,

that evil paths are wretched paths,

that to depart from you is to lose all good.

I have seen the purity and beauty of your perfect law,

the happiness of those in whose hearts you reign,

the calm dignity of the walk to which you call,

yet I daily violate and condemn your precepts.

All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them cry pardon.

Work in me a more profound and abiding repentance;

Give me the fullness of a godly grief that trembles and fears,

yet ever trusts and loves,

which is ever powerful and ever confident;

Grant that through the tears of repentance may see more clearly

the brightness and glories of your saving cross.

__________________________

2 Corinthians 7:10-11a

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret,

but worldly sorrow brings death.

See what this godly sorrow has produced in you:

what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation,

what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.

2 thoughts on “mourning my sin”

Do you do the modifying? I’m interested in what modifying has been done. Sometimes Puritans were quite brutal.

prayer & verse