A prayer based on Mark 7:1-23.

<aside> 🙏🏻 Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. You are the Rock. Your work is perfect, and all Your ways are true and just. You are a God of faithfulness; there is no unrighteousness in You. We praise You for Your perfections. We praise You too for Your purity. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. Too pure to look on us, because Holy Father, we confess that we are an unclean people. Our thoughts, attitudes, words, actions are corrupt, and this is because our hearts are sinful. Our hearts are not pure, they are unclean.

How we need our hearts to be washed clean of this wickedness. To be forgiven for all our sins. To be given a new heart that will enable us to stop sinning and live godly lives. We thank You that this forgiveness we need, this new heart we need, is not something we can earn. Not something we can get for ourselves: by our good works; by our obedience of Your commandments; by our religious activity; because if it was down to what we are able to do, we will fall short. We would all fail to meet Your high standards.

So, we thank You that this forgiveness, this cleansing, this new heart is found in Jesus. That it is only His blood that can wash our sins away. That when He died on the cross, He took the punishment we deserve, and He did this so that we might be forgiven. We thank You that He rose again and has sent His Spirit to transform our hearts.

And Lord, as those who have been forgiven and who have Your Spirit, we ask for You to increase our desire to want to obey Your Word, and the ability to, so that we honour You with our lives. Keep us from hypocrisy. Of going through the motions by saying the right things, doing the right actions, and giving the impression that we love Christ when our hearts are in fact far from Him.

Our God, we are aware that there are many teachers who claim to speak for You, but whose teaching undermines what is found in Scripture; adding traditions and rules that are not required of us. ignoring clear instructions because they hard to obey or out of step with the culture around us. Therefore, help us to listen and follow the voice of our Good Shepherd. Protect us from being taken in by what is false or that which would draw us away from Him. Keep our elders reliable and faithful in handling Your Word and passing it on to us. And as they do, would we hear Jesus’ dear voice and all His will obey.

Amen.

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