A prayer based on 1 Chronicles 4:9.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Lord Jesus, We praise You that Your coming was worth the wait for Your people of old; and now that You have come into the world: being born to a virgin named Mary, living a perfect life of obedience to God’s law, suffering and dying in our place to save us from our sins, rising to give us victory over death, and ascending to prepare a place for us in the new creation; we can say: You are worth trusting in. You are worth following. You are worth putting all our hope in.

Lord, we know that this world is cursed. Creation is groaning. The evidence is all around us. It is announced at the birth of every child. The words of Jabez’s mother “I gave birth in pain” ring true.

We praise You that You have reversed the curse upon creation; that You are the offspring of the woman who would come and crush Satan’s head; who would undo the damage done by the Fall; who would restore creation back to the way God intended it to be.

We praise You for the proof You gave that You are this King and You can undo this curse, as you: stilled chaotic waters on a lake; restored sight to the blind; speech to the mute; movement to the paralytic; hearing to the deaf; health to the sick; freedom to the demon-possessed; and gave life to the dead. But more than these, we know You can reverse the curse because you have dealt with the reason for the curse in the first place. Sin.

We are amazed that You would take upon Yourself our sin and the sin of all who trust in You, and be made a curse. We thank You that You did this so that the curse of hell over us could be lifted. Why then would we not trust in You? Why then would we not follow You? Why then would we not put all our hope in You? Only You can give us an eternal future in a world no longer under the curse.

Yet we confess that though we have this hope: We don’t love You as we should. We don’t obey Your commandments as we should. You have given us Your Spirit to help us, yet we don’t depend upon Him. And we don’t bring glory to Your Father and our Father in heaven.

As we confess our sins to You now, help us to turn from them, and to show your worth to others by our lips and our lives, so that they may honour and worship You.

Amen.

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