Approach and confession prayer 18 June 2023

Lord God

this time

we set apart for you

a time where we bring our prayers

our voices

our money and ourselves

before your throne of grace

a throne which reaches beyond our imaginations

for it is in time

and beyond time

for what is time for you, Lord God?

A thousand years are like an hour

a year, a blink of an eye

it’s simply too much for us to comprehend

but faith isn’t about comprehension, is it?

It’s about trust

trust in your timing, Lord God

trust in your plan for us, and for all humanity

trust in your never-ending love for us

even in times of trouble and struggle

even in the times where we’re here, but not here

distracted by many things

help us to focus on you and you alone

Christ our Lord

our friend

our sibling

assist us to place you at our core

in our worship today

and in how we lead and shape our lives

may your love, poured out by the Holy Spirit, fill our hearts

fill us that we know the hope which our faith in you brings

a hope which seems foolish

but we know through our trust in your goodness

help us to know that goodness more and more

for we need your goodness

to take away our sins

the many ways in which the distractions of our lives, the problems in the world,

all the ways where our focus is taken from you

and your way, your timing

in Jesus

may we receive again the forgiveness poured out for us

receive it that we may focus our whole time

in worship and daily life

on Christ alone

Amen