Text: Romans 8:1-2
Praise God for the deep, wide, sweeping promise of these two tiny verses from Romans!
From wherever we sit today – in whatever state or country, in whatever state of mind or heart – let’s thank God for the unfathomable gift of His redeeming, non-condemning grace as we pray this prayer of confession together.
Prayer: Continual Repentance
O God of Grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
and has imputed his righteousness to my soul,
clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,
deking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,
for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
every evening return in it,
go out to the day’s work in it,
be married in it,
be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it,
enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
from The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan prayers and devotions, ©2001, The Banner of Truth Trust, p.76.
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56 thoughts on "continual repentance"
Counterexample for your conjecture:(Assuming that x is horizontal and increasing right, and y is vertical increasing down.)I suspect, though, that every time you subtract the next greedy quad from the current figure, you reduce (horizontal edges) + (total genus) (connected components) by at least 1.
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Just WRECKED by these prayers.
I need to repent of my repentance….. O God, let it be so.
I am appreciating these prayers. I have lost my sight for some time now. I can see that I’ve lost my vision. I have become so shortsighted. The circumference around me is so tiny and small…and I can only see myself snd have thought far too much of myself. “I can change. I can do this. I am this. I need this.” I have said innumerable amounts if times. Today reading this. I stopped. God’s sight of me reflected back into my own vision and…I don’t know if I’m making sense….but I saw how small and weak I am and how powerful God is. I saw my thoughts, behaviours, my words as “tinctured with selfishness.” That even my repentance. ..any thing good in me…still just filthy…and then saw how the perfection of Christ covered me. How unfair! A psalm came to mind. “What is man that you are mindful of him?” David didn’t even dare to say who. He said what am I? And seeing all if this I just have to say: “the love of God is the highest order in the universe.” Who can fathom his love and goodness? I cannot. Nor will I ever be able to. The grace of God allows us, all of us, to move, to become like him. I do not want to move on my own anymore. I don’t want to take an inch, I don’t even want to look in a direction that he doesn’t will.
There is nothing perfect and righteous about me. My mind cannot even begin to behold the exceeding sinfulness of sin, exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness and the exceeding wonder of grace. Lord you are everything beautiful and wonderful. You are too good. I am not quite sure if I will ever understand why you are so good, but I will praise you at all times Lord. Please lord keep me. Never let me go.
" I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it,
stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun." I don't even know what to say. Who but God would do this?! He refills our grace cup day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. He tells us not to do something, we do it anyways and He's still standing there with His arms open and ready to take us back. I'm overwhelmed by His grace and mercy. Sisters please choose to refuse any person, circumstance, or internal thought that tries to convince you that your aren't a precious pearl in His sight.
"But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
my best prayers are stained with sin;
my penitential tears are so much impurity;
my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;
my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness."
The song "Grace like Rain" by Todd Agnew comes to mind as I read this prayer. Lord, even in submitting myself to you, evil is right alongside me trying to wreck it all. Lord, only Your righteousness can save me. ONLY YOU can make me who You want me to be. Lord, I pray you'd help us all to submit ourselves to and trust you more. Thank you for washing our stains away and clothing us with your love and righteousness.
"I have no robe to bring to cover my sins" That's amazing.
I love how we're all finding different parts of this…. such incredible poetry I could spend a day on each line!
Just checked out your blog, really beautiful….. selfie no. 8 is usually my best too ;-)
Mmhmm…reminds me of Isaiah 64:6 – "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." So thankful that we are clothed in Jesus' righteousness instead.
These studies have been a much needed refreshment to my soul. Right after praying this confession and feeling the Holy Spirit I saw the photo with the lines of the prayer that stuck out to me the most. My first thought? “I should share this on social media so others can be inspired!” My second thought? “What will my non Christian friends think?”
How awful is that? So I had to repent again. I still feel pretty bad for thinking that way. But God has forgiven me and is working on my heart, chipping away at my sin. I am so grateful and awed by his grace.
I'm right there with you, Hazelmaddie. The minute I'm done praying, or even during praying, my mind rabbit trails and resorts to thoughts like, "Oh, what will they think?" all the time. Lord, thank you for being SO good to us. For being patient with us and quick to forgive, slow to anger, quick to compassion and abounding in Grace and Mercy. Praise you, father God. Thanks for this, sister! blessings.
“I need to repent of my repentance.” That part really struck me. We are desperate for Him in every part of who we are and all that we do!
Obviously God is trying to tell me something here. I do two separate bible studies each day and both of the versus today were Romans 8: 1,2. I am harder on myself than anyone else on this side of heaven. I am 21/2 years into a separation due to multiple infidelities on my husbands part, I am subjected still to his anger and hate and violence regularly, yet I blame myself for not being enough, not saving him, thinking I deserve fair and settling for what he wishes to give. I have partnered with an amazing company with people who believe in me and think I'm amazing, and yet I feel like such a fraud. I don't believe in my value. I don't believe I am worthy…yet to others I empower, to anyone else in my situation I support, encourage, build up, and direct to Him who can heal and save. I allow satan to fill my mind with lies. Yet in my darkest hours my saviour carried me, whispered loving thoughts in my ear, gave me beautiful visions of the future He plans for me. Yet every day I believe the lie. Everyday I allow the self condemnation to resurface. I am so grateful for the scripture and the prayer today. It speaks my life so clearly. I am so grateful I have a saviour who knows my heart, not just my mind, and never gives up reinforcing I am His creation…He doesn't make garbage. Thank you Father for the hope of my future. Thank you for saving me when all I wanted was to go away from everything. Thank you for saving a sinner as "lost" as I. Thank you for believing in even me.
Sharon, your words deeply move me and resonate with me on many levels… for so long, I accepted less, something harmful, because I honestly believed I deserved less and was not looking to God at all for anything, much less my own self worth… but GOD. God saw me in my sin, and loved me enough to draw me out with lovingkindness and a strong arm to save. So many times I've found myself beating myself up, believing I'm never going to be good enough to be loved by Him, and yet He speaks to me gently, reminding me that I already am. He relays, "Daughter… but you forget that I love you, even here." In those moments, I can't help but break down and cry accepting the truth: that God, the creator of the universe, Jesus Christ, the all in all, wants me to be happy. To succeed. To be VALUED and CHERISHED, loved and embraced, living in a state of grace. I still struggle with it, as you do, Sharon.
Lord, I pray for both Sharon and I. I pray today that Sharon would let herself be vulnerable to you. I pray she'd let You love her, let You embrace her, with all of the truth of who she is to you. I pray that nothing satan tries to pull would get in the way of you showing Your mighty, never-failing, always-there Love for your precious daughter, Lord. Show her who she truly is.
It's christian rap, so it may be way out of your range of music (I have no idea, haha), but the song According to God by Beautiful Eulogy was huge for me in both accepting and holding onto the truth of God's great love for me. I hold onto the biblical identity it affirms about all of us on days like this, where fear and doubt creep in. I hope that even if you don't like the sound of it, the words would speak to you. The lyrics are in the first or second comment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTSgERIkqHE Be blessed, sister. Hold onto who God says you are today and nothing else.
Thank you so much annalee. My heart is so heavy today. Thank you.
Praying for you now, Sharon. That He'd heal your heavy heart with His great Love. That His great light would shine through every lie and inch of pain; that it would eclipse everything trying to keep you from living in His great love. "But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,and with his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
Dear friend, He died so that you could be truly healed. Truly set free. He died for no other reason than for you to have new life. Live in that truth today.
Rachel, thank you for those kind words :)
You're so welcome, Yolanda. I pray that you hold fast to the promises of Christ and that you are assured of His love for you!
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace.
Those words are as rich as chocolate cake to my soul. That's my prayer today…that I may catch a glimpse of the way God sees things.
Amen, Rachel. I pray the exact same. That my heart would be transformed by seeing through the eyes of God.
Yes, yes, yes!
Deep. Powerful. Wow!
I woke up this morning with so much heaviness on my heart I feel like a fraud. At church Sunday for the first time I walked to the alter when the pastor was calling up for prayer I felt the energy and spirit of god in the room so greatly and I felt him in me. I rededicated my life to Christ. I felt forgiven and new inside and full of hope.
It’s only Tuesday and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sinned since then. Even after church my daughter was being naughty and I I yelled at her I’ve been rude to my husband and have had so many negative thoughts about who do I think I am so try and be righteous and change things. I’m crying now because I just realized I’m giving in to the devil he wants me to believe the lies he tells me instead of knowing that gods got this. You see the message Sunday was that Gods Got this. I am struggling with faith to believe it though. This prayer today is so true and what I needed to hear, I’m going to meditate on it and sit in stillness soaking up this good energy and just surrender to him. Hoping today will be a better day.
Yolanda, you ARE forgiven and you can be full of hope! We are all redeemed by Jesus, and none of us will be perfect on this earth…that's why we need His grace every hour (sometimes minute!) of every day. One of the best things about salvation is that you cannot lose it – you are secure in Christ, friend!
I think that, more than anything, the devil wants to convince you that you are NOT loved, you are NOT redeemed, you are NOT free. he could give two hoots about your sinful behavior if he's been able to convince you that Jesus doesn't love you and that you have to work for your salvation. If he can convince you of that, he knows that he has you in his grip…he wants you to be void of all hopefulness.
(I don't feel like I explained that well enough…I hope it makes sense)
Yolanda, the "sin of sinfulness" is horrible and revolting to our Lord. That's why there's Jesus! We cannot do this on our own, we cannot be righteous on our own. Thank goodness that we have the righteousness of Christ covering us, the forgiveness of God given to us freely and fully. Rest in HIS power today, sister…not your own.
Rachel you explained my heart better than I could!
Yolanda I read your message and I just wanted to say you ARE loved and chosen by our Jesus, even all the times it really doesn't feel like it. None of us are perfect, but like you said, God has got this covered. Our job is just to go back to him, again, and again and again. Lay down and just be. Say sorry, get up and WITH HIS STRENGTH try again. But we're all doing exactly what you describe, none of us have got it sorted, you're not alone in needing Jesus SO MUCH. That's what we're all doing here….. meeting God each day together to do it all over again!
Hope the sun shines on you today and you feel some of the love he has stored up for you :-)
Yolanda, your words bring tears to my eyes! I cannot ever count how many times I've felt the same way you had this morning and in the past few days. All of us trip and fall into the lie of needing to be perfect and beating ourselves up for how we've failed. But Yolanda, Christ KNOWS you. You are His daughter! Nothing you do can make Him love you more or less! He smiles on you and delights in you, and yearns for you to truly know that His blood has washed away your sin– that truly, His grace is enough for You, the You that yells at your daughter, the You that is rude and selfish at times with others, the You that thinks negative things and acts out of disbelief. HIS GRACE IS BIG ENOUGH to cover you and he is STRONG to save you from every mess you create, ever. Yolanda, let him embrace you today. Let Him love you in the fullness that He does.
Lord, I pray for Yolanda right now, that today would not be lived in fear or condemnation, but in letting You meet her where she is and showing her that You have already forgiven everything her frail, human body and mind will do. Lord, pick up her weary self off the ground that is failure after sin, and make her strong only by the strength of your grace and MIGHTY LOVE alone. Eclipse her afflictions and maintained regrets with your glory!! Amen. Let this day be lived in the light of your TRUTH, FORGIVENESS, and PEACE. Bless you, Yolanda. Love you, sister. Your words have spoken to and blessed me as well. I pray the Lord would keep you embraced by his love and light today. xoxo
I am so floored and deeply humbled by all the comments and heart felt words. I have never felt so uplifted & supported by other women, let alone people I don't even know. Thank you so much for the encouragement, today I've had so much clarity and am so thankful that HIS GRACE IS BIG ENOUGH and I'm not alone. Thank you Ladies :)
My best prayers are stained with sin.
Wow, this stuck out to me the most. So thankful for His grace!
Amen!!
Yes! Even in our best, most pure moments, we are totally unworthy of what Christ has given us. Lord, thank you… Thank you. Forgive us and make us yield to your will in all things!
That negates any self righteous thought I had! Oh I prayed a really heartfelt prayer, or fed the hungry but am still stained with unrighteousness! Only He redeem me, Lord may I never forget that.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
and by grace am always receiving change of raiment….
Dis is xactly me..God pls giv me d grace 2 b concious of d fact dt u died 4 my sins..hlp me 2 live a true life of holiness n righteousness..cos my soul yearns 4 u n 2 do ur will;hw I luv 2 b in ur presence..cos me 2 b @ ur feet till d last day wen we wl b freed frm sin n sufferings in2 enternal glory…Amen.
Beautiful. Lord, humble my heart. I pray this prayer with you also, Amara.
Amen AnnaLee;God wl grant us d desires of our hrt..
How profound are the words, "I need to repent of my repentance."
Do you ever become tired of yourself saying, "Here I am again Lord, I just helped renail that spike into Christ hand?" I do. It killes me when I have these moments of such clarity of the payment Christ made for my sin. Yet like this old Puritan prayer, I know that nothing I can do on my own will cover my sin — I need that costly robe of Christ that has been woven with grace and mercy.
Yes Lord, grant me never to loose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of "MY" sin. Amen
I need to repent of my repentance. How often do I repent – turn the other way from my sin – then do the about face once again, turning back to my sin? That repentance cannot be sincere. How often do I truly repent in dust and ashes – be so sickened by my sin that I truly never even imagine doing it again. Lord make my repentance true.
Amen, Joanne. Lord, break our hard hearts and replace in us new, soft, flesh ones, to be truly repentant of the way we break your heart.
Was struck by this line: "I need to repent of my repentance". Need to think on that one more. I'm sure I do need to repent of my repentance somehow. Just not sure how/why yet. Never thought of repentance as not measuring up before. But I can see where my motivations for repentance and commitment to repenting may be weak or wane.
Jessica, that line caught me off guard, too! I think what it's getting at is that we need to repent of our impure motives or ways of repenting. Sometimes we repent simply in word, but not in deed. Sometimes we can repent and think that it is the work which makes us free…when in all actuality, it is only Jesus' work on the Cross that makes us free.
Just my two cents! Hope that helps you think it through a bit more deeply!
I think you are right on, Rachel! Thanks for this insight.
It struck me too, Jessica. It reminded me of times in prayer and repentance where I am either puffed with pride to where I'm not sincere in my repentance, or that even when I am humbled before God and trying to serve him wholeheartedly, rabbit-trails of thoughts pour in and I'm distracted– we're never truly pure no matter how hard we try, and we must rely on God's grace and love to sustain us during those times.
We're so often struck by the same things, AnnaLee! And pride and rabbit trails are certainly struggles I share as well. Thanks for sharing!
Amen! Heavenly father allow us to repent in a way that makes us not only walk away from our sin, but also loathe the sin we were in. Allow us to be worthy of beautiful robe you have clothed us in. God bless you all SRT sisters!
God bless you, Gema!
That's deep waters. Just deep.
:-) Yep. Just trying to wade through those waters with y'all.
Another beautiful prayer! These verses and this prayer reminded me of two things this morning: "The kindness of the Lord is intended to lead us to repentance" (Romans 2:4). And how wonderful that Romans 8:1-2 is true of us (We are no longer condemned! We are set free from the law of sin and death!), yet how humbling, how loving, how kind that we still need the kind of repentance expressed in this prayer, and we can be confident we will receive the forgiveness we sincerely seek because of Romans 8:1-2. Thank you again for turning our hearts toward the Father!
I loved this too, and the verse that came to mind is John 8:36, "If the Son (Truth) makes you free, you will be free indeed." Love Romans 2:4, too…thanks for sharing!
Yes! I feel like I need to write this truth down and let it absorb into my heart a lot more. So often, I feel I need to "do something" to win God's favor, but it's just me/condemnation talking… We are free indeed! Lord, let us repent because of your goodness and kindness to us, not because of any condemnation.
O God of Grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute…….you have passed on/transferred MY sin, my wrongdoing, my pride, my infidelity, my ungodly desires, to my substitute …..Jesus..
And has imputed his righteousness to my soul,……and He in turn has passed on/ transferred His righteousness to my soul
Clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe…….putting on me His robes of splendour, of joy of love, forgiveness and grace
Deking me with jewels of holiness…….covering me in His blood, His Holy blood, that I might walk free, holy and apart from the sin, He wears in my place……
I am floored, just those lines are packed with much more than I could ever realise I need to pray……because I do need to pray them…..I am a sinner…..yet a sinner who,undeservedly has been redeemed by One called Jesus….who took my place, my filthy rags, and gave me His crown, covered me in His robes, filled me with His spirit,……covered me with GRACE….
O God of Grace,
although my garments will always be filthy, thank you for your Grace and mercy to this sad sinner, who is prone to wonder, prone to roam,….
Grant me never to lose sight of
the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
the exceeding glory of Christ,
the exceeding beauty of holiness,
the exceeding wonder of grace……I ask this , I pray this, I beg this in the name of Jesus, the One who gave it all for me,…..to His glory….AMEN.
Happy Tuesday my girls, wear those gracious robes with love and kindness as has been bought for us…..x x xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tina, I am so glad that you share your heart every single day on here :)
Amen to that Rachel! :) God is using your honest words, Tina. Praise Him! So beautiful.
Amen, and those last few lines that you have so beautifully illustrated. I need to see just how exceedingly sinful my sin is to understand just how vast his love, grace and mercy are.
And this is me
I am always going into the far country,
and always returning home as a prodigal,
always saying, Father, forgive me,
Just so thankful that he does!
These prayers are so beautiful. I love the image of the Father's best robe that he gives to each of us every morning.