A prayer for the first Sunday in Lent

God.

Sometimes we simply don’t know what you want.

If we knew, for sure, we’d do it. Maybe.

But we feel like we don’t know what you want. And we worry that we will do the wrong thing, or the right thing for the wrong reasons. We worry about keeping you happy and not making you mad. We worry.

If we don’t keep you happy, you won’t do the things that make us happy. Like healing our loved one. Like giving us work. Like fixing our relationships.

So we try to make you happy and then we get mad when you don’t fix things.

We confess.
We confess that we haven’t spent time listening to you so we know what you want.
We confess that we haven’t spent time turning away from other voices so we can hear yours.
We confess that we haven’t spent time learning how you lived, Jesus, so we can live like you.
We confess that we don’t confess that God raised you from the dead.
We confess that we forget that you are involved at all.

But because you are God and are raised from the dead, you forgive us for what we confess.

You invite us to follow you in our weakness and forgetfulness.

You offer to be our God because we fail at being god.

I ask on our behalf that you will help us remember the story of you and your love and your forgiveness.
Help us say no and say yes.

Amen.

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Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Romans 10:8-13; Luke 4:1-13