LORD God,
It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. [Jeremiah 32:17-19]
But we know that, left to themselves, our hearts love darkness rather than light, and evil deeds naturally follow. [John 3:19-20] We deserve only the fruit of our evil deeds from you.
Yet you made a gracious promise long ago, that you would cleanse a people from their idols and give them a new heart, that you would put a new spirit within them, that you would forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more against them, causing them to walk in your statutes and careful to obey your law. [Jeremiah 31:34, Ezekiel 18:22, Ezekiel 36:25-27]
And we know that this gracious promise is true, possible because your perfect son, Jesus, gave up his life on our behalf, and bestowed upon us the fruit of his good deeds that only he deserved. You are merciful to us, sinners all. We thank you for your grace, and for Jesus through whom it comes, who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.Amen.