Dear Lord,
We are not as you intended
We’re like sheep who resist the safety of the sheepfold
We ignore the Shepherd’s call and choose the siren’s song of seduction
We claim to want relationship with our redeemer but our claims are false
Our actions speak louder than our claims and our words deceive none but ourselves
We adore the screen
We tithe to the God of entertainment
We worship at the alter of comfort and crave leisure more than your presence
We’ve exchanged our strength for gluttony
We’ve traded our honor to belong in a world that hates us
and forfeited our dignity to broadcast our opinions
We are addicted
We are prayerless
We are self absorbed
We consume without thinking
Take without giving
and criticize without knowing
We do not honor your unfathomable sacrifice on the cross
We keep it to ourselves, refusing to share the love you give to all without restraint
We act like we’re ashamed of you, and we are
But you still love, give, care for, and desire us
You watch over us as we sleep, comfort us when we weep, and answer our cold, feeble prayers
You are committed to us like a husband who loves his bride
It’s scandalous, unimaginable, INSANE the way you love us
Break through our stupidity
Break through our complacency
Shatter our apathy and selfishness
We need to need you and need to want you
Reach into our unmoving, stagnant hearts for they are like cold molasses that need your loving hand to stir them
Take your plow to us and break up the fallow, even if it hurts
Send your rain
Release your Spirit on us
Pour Yourself all over us until we look like You
Let fountains of worship spring up from your church
Let rivers of prayer flow freely from our lips
Let generosity be given as naturally as breathing
and let us share the hope you gave to us with joy and spontaneity to everyone
Be the center of our lives
Be our first, second, third, and fourth priority
That we would truly love you with our whole lives, and not just our words
Be our everything!
And on that day, when we see you face to face
When we worship at your throne
And see your nail pierced hands and feet
We will not be as strangers meeting for the first time
We will be as friends embracing
Heal your church Lord
You are I AM
Amen
