Daily Lectionary: Genesis 22:1-19; Mark 7:1-23
3. Are you sorry for your sins? Yes, I am sorry that I have sinned against God.
4. What have you deserved from God because of your sins?
His wrath and displeasure, temporal death, and eternal damnation. See Romans 6:21, 23. (The Small Catechism: Christian Questions 3-4)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. I’ve got nothing, Jesus, nothing to cling to but you. I’ve got nothing to hold up before you, nothing to trust in but your Lent for me. I’ve got nothing that would make me worthy.
I’m sorry. I also know I’m not sorry enough! I truly am sometimes “Sorry, not sorry.” I want to be completely sorry. I just keep wanting to stick my toe in my sins and see how they feel. I wish I didn’t fall back into my sins. I don’t know why I do. I’m awful.
I want to do good. I need to do good. Yet, all I seem to do over and over is evil. I can’t seem to stop, even though I am desperate to stop. I just keep running roughshod over all the commandments.
I know what I deserve. Thank God you tell me what I deserve! Otherwise I’d just keep thinking that everything is alright. I know from what you’ve told me in church and from the Bible that I deserve hell. I’ve earned my death and my grave. There’s no part of me that doesn’t deserve to be punished. Without you, all of me is going to go to hell.
Jesus. I need Jesus! I desperately need Jesus to be my Lent and my Easter and everything in between. I need Him to have mercy on me. I need Him to forgive me. I need Him to knock me down when I’m full of myself and to pick me up and carry me when I fall.
I’m eternally broken. I’ve got nothing left in my spiritual tank and nothing left to give to others. I’m just empty and all by myself and here without a purpose. You alone are my purpose and my reason for being.
Jesus’ Cross is my death. His resurrection must be my forgiveness before God. He’s my only hope, my only Savior, my only rescue. I am done doing this on my own. I need Him to be my Jesus.
The only hope I have was washed down my forehead in Baptism. The only comfort I have is spoken to me in the word of forgiveness at church. The only thing which satisfies my hunger and thirst for a relationship with God is the Lord’s Body and Blood given for me to eat and drink.
Forgive me. Restore me. Take my inadequate sorry and forgive it. Take my “good” that I have done and absolve it. I know I’m not enough. Please remember Jesus and forget my sins. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent by Higher Things. Copyright Higher Things®, Higher Things - Dare to be Lutheran.
