I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9:4-6
Dear God, my wife told me a story this evening about John Michael Talbot speaking at an event she attended last night. He mentioned a time in his life when he felt the burden of his sin after an experience of dying briefly during a heart event and feeling the weight of it in that small moment between life, death, and then back to life. He said he spent months really repenting through his sin.
Regarding this passage, I remember when I was listening to the Bible in a year podcast last year and the priest focused on Daniel repenting in this passage for not only himself, but the people as well. He owned the corporate sin for himself. He repented.
My wife is Catholic and last week was a “reconciliation” service that was scheduled for lent. It’s a time for Catholics to confess their sins to a priest and then receive dispensation and penance instructions. It’s not the worst tradition I’ve ever heard of.
Recently, watching the Jesus Revolution movie, I experienced once again the power of repentance. The freedom felt from that first exposure to you and the grace of Jesus. Repentance is powerful.
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, I’ve repented so much for things that I think I’m beyond the “high” of repenting, but I am certainly not past the peace it brings. The peace your forgiveness brings. It breaks my heart when anyone rejects you because they see you as the great Rule-Maker in the sky, just waiting for us to break your rules. The truth is, the rules serve a function and purpose. Like for our own children. We don’t just make rules for rules’ sake. We make them to guide and protect them from things they may or may not see. So as for me, I’m sorry for the things I do. I’m sorry for the selfish, unfaithful, insecure things I do. Help me to find my joy only in you and the things you call me to. Help me to be your example of repentance and grace for others. Help me to be your salt in this increasingly saltless world.
I pray all of this under the grace afforded to me through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus,
Amen