I’m currently sitting in an executive pad in Bristol, it’s got a nice plasma TV and a comfy leather sofa with a bit you can recline on, it’s very nice. Anyway, this morning we visited a local church and was intrigued by the ‘Confession Prayer’, intrigued for two reasons…
First, it was all about Forgiveness, something which I’ve had to think a lot about recently and have consequently blogged on. Here’s the prayer:
Dear Jesus, it is hard to forgive people when they hurt us and our friends. We want to hit back – and sometimes we do. But You teach us to love our enemies no matter what they do. Forgive us Lord Jesus, when we do not forgive others. Help us to understand why people hurt others, and let our hearts be filled with love for them. Amen
I like the prayer because it’s simple, kids can understand it, but it’s also brutally honest about the reality of life and how hard forgiveness is, not just that but the sinfulness of not forgiving people.
Secondly, I was intrigued because it’s a really weird “Confession”… usually when we do corporate confession in church it’s a bit more general, we acknowledge a complete depravity in all areas of life and bring that to God… although in this the only act of confession is to confess our refusal to forgive others. So, great prayer about forgiveness… slightly strange as an act of corporate confession!
On a related thought… every so often for one reason or another I get the opportunity to visit other churches, and I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a bit of a ‘Mystery Worshipper’ thing, essentially to blog a review of the church service – how good was the service, coffee, how comfy the seat, how warm the welcome? This isn’t a new concept (see Ship of Fools), but that site tends to be a little disappointing in terms of the quantity and quality of the reviews there. Anyone interested in joining me in this??
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