A Morning Prayer

God, I praise you because you are sovereign God. You are creator and sustainer and lover and redeemer and telos.

And I am creature, stuck in sin, in foolishness, in rebellion, in stubbornness, in deadness.

I am worth your wrath, my God. I am worthy of your hatred; being called your enemy; hell. I am worth your enmity. What have I done but earn it? I have not loved you, delighted in you, sought you or obeyed you – but as it pleased me. O God, I am a careless, spiteful, hateful, hostile rebel. I deserve hell.

But O God, you are loving towards poor sinners, knowing our wretchedness; our helplessness. And you have rightly desired to glorify yourself by loving rebels. So you saw fit to crush your own Son for me, to vindicate him by raising him from the dead, to honor him by giving him the universe for a Kingdom, to honor yourself in the future of his reign over the new creation, including the people whom you have chosen, redeemed, and will glorify.

You have given faith to those you loved, granted them Jesus’ righteousness, lavished on them the Holy Spirit, and guaranteed them glory and happiness in your presence forever.

And so I thank you for all of salvation: regeneration, justification, and glorification. Let me not rejoice that the spirits are subject to me, but that your sovereign hand has written my name in your book of life. And not only these, but in this life you have given me love, friends, food, clothing, and shelter – none of which I’ve earned – but which are all because of your grace.

I ask this: that you glorify yourself in me. Cause my mind, emotions, and will to be governed by you for your glory. Cause me to depend in prayer, to kill my flesh in faith, and to pursue the things of your Kingdom in hope.

Cause me to love as I ought, to speak as I ought, to make decisions for your sake - that whatever I do, in word or deed, might be in the name of Jesus Christ.

Cause me to first love you, second love Lacey, third love your Church, and fourth love my neighbor. Keep me in holiness all this day for your name’s sake.

In the blood and obedience of Jesus I pray, and for his glory’s sake, amen.