God of light and love,
You made the stars to worship You. The mountains bow in reverence to You. You caused the oceans to roar Your greatness. Since everything exists to lift You high, so will I. You are worthy.
You are not only worthy to be worshipped, You are worthy to be imitated. In fact, my imitation of You should be an expression of my exultation in You. As a child who has a good father longs to walk in his daddy’s steps, so I should copy You.
Yet I fail to pattern my life after Yours. My love too often turns into lust. Instead of being generous, I have the itch to get my hands on what belongs to other people. My greed proves that I am in reality an idolater who worships the things of this world. Too often my mouth pours out filthiness, nastiness, silliness, foolish talk, flippancy, and crude joking. I am a child of disobedience. Because of my defiance, O God, I deserve to experience Your wrath.
How could a sinful person like me ever come into Your presence? I know, deep down, that apart from Christ no immoral, impure, or greedy person like me could ever inherit the Kingdom of Christ.
Yet even though my life has been filled with idolatry, Christ Jesus still loves me. Thank You, Lord, that He offered Himself on the cross as a sacrifice. The offering of His life to die in my place was a pleasing aroma to You, God. His love for me was not cautious but extravagant. He gave everything of Himself to save me. Therefore, I repent and I receive the undeserved gift of Your forgiveness that has been offered to me through Christ.
You are the God of my salvation. You chased down my heart through all of my failure and pride.
On a hill called Calvary, the Light of the world was abandoned in darkness to die. All my failures disappeared there where Your Son lost His life. He lost His life so I could find mine. And then He left the grave behind. And one day, so will I.
Now, help me to live a life that is worthy of this gospel. May I not be fooled by those who try to excuse their sins. Don’t even let me hang around people who deceive others with their empty words. Save me from participating in the sinful things these people do. Remind me often that sin has no place among God’s people.
Instead, help me to give thanks, to live in purity, and to be generous. As Your beloved child, help me to watch what You do and then mimic Your ways. I want to follow the example of my Lord Jesus Christ, living a life overflowing with Your love.
Since the wind goes where You send it, so will I. Since even the rocks cry out Your praise, so will I. Since the sum of all my praises still falls shy, then I look forward to singing to You again in heaven a hundred billion times.
Lord God of my salvation, truly You are worthy.
Amen.
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This prayer has been inspired by Ephesians 5:1-7. Some of the words and phrases in this prayer have been taken directly from the English Standard Version, the New Living Translation, The Message, the New American Standard Bible, the J.B. Phillips New Testament, and the song “So Will I.”
