Brennan Manning, in his classic, "The Ragamuffin Gospel," offers this heartfelt prayer of confession:
Lord Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before You and try to bribe You with our preposterous portfolios. Suddenly we have come to our senses. We are sorry and ask You to forgive us. Give us the grace to admit we are ragamuffins, to embrace our brokenness, to celebrate Your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on Your mercy no matter what we may do. Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get attention, to do the truth quietly without display, to let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, to accept our limitations, to cling to the Gospel of grace, and to delight in Your love. Amen.
They say, "Confession is good for the soul." The Psalmist David would agree. In Psalm 32 he writes how a guilty conscience leads to misery. But then, in verse five: "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord - and You (the Lord) forgave the guilt of my sin." It's no accident that our worship each Sunday begins with confession and absolution. We "ragamuffins" need to confess our sins. And then we hear the comforting words, "For the sake of Jesus Christ, God forgives you all your sins." Praise God for His gift of forgiveness!
