JM
Puritan Board Doctor
Found this during my morning devotion it's from a prayer titled, "Devotion at the Approach of Death."
Have mercy on me, O Lord, I fear your judgments, for they are just and true.
"The wages of sin is death," and my death is just and well deserved. I am a sinner, from the moment You breathed life into me until the day of my death; I am a child of Adam, doomed to die. My sin is always before me, now more than ever as I lie on my bed and ponder my life. O Father, how I have sinned against You and those around me! I am ashamed even to admit it. I sometimes try to minimize it to others and say, "I've lived a good life," but I know the truth. Every day of my life has been soilded with sin. I am afraid of dying. I fear the unknown; I fear losing hold on my life.
And yet, by Your grace, I am unafraid.
Your psalmist says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," and the Holy Spirit cries out from heaven, "Blessed are [those] who die in the Lord." I cling to these words. Your Son, Jesus, my Lord, became man to take up my sins and my sinfulness in His own sinless humanity and to bury it all in His perfect death. He embraced me on His cross, and in Him I already am judged and crucified.
Grant me to trust this with all my heart!
From the Lutheran Book of Prayer
Have mercy on me, O Lord, I fear your judgments, for they are just and true.
"The wages of sin is death," and my death is just and well deserved. I am a sinner, from the moment You breathed life into me until the day of my death; I am a child of Adam, doomed to die. My sin is always before me, now more than ever as I lie on my bed and ponder my life. O Father, how I have sinned against You and those around me! I am ashamed even to admit it. I sometimes try to minimize it to others and say, "I've lived a good life," but I know the truth. Every day of my life has been soilded with sin. I am afraid of dying. I fear the unknown; I fear losing hold on my life.
And yet, by Your grace, I am unafraid.
Your psalmist says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," and the Holy Spirit cries out from heaven, "Blessed are [those] who die in the Lord." I cling to these words. Your Son, Jesus, my Lord, became man to take up my sins and my sinfulness in His own sinless humanity and to bury it all in His perfect death. He embraced me on His cross, and in Him I already am judged and crucified.
Grant me to trust this with all my heart!
From the Lutheran Book of Prayer