I’m continuing to post some prayers from my book 500 Prayers for Young People (Read a bit about it here). This collection of three prayers is from the second section of the book, which looks at sin, repentance and forgiveness. Cheery stuff I know, but really quite important when you think about it. I hope they’re useful.
This has reminded me – there are quite a lot of prayers in there which are based on passages of scripture, including some rewritten Psalms.
1.
Lord when you passed by in front of Moses,
Your glory was so great that he could not see you and live;
He had to hide his face from you.
Lord with all the sin and shame of my life,
How can I not be burned up by your presence?
Yet you forgive; you wipe the slate clean;
You make me right with you and embrace me.
How incredible that the God of glory draws near to me,
And yet I will not perish.
2.
Lead me not into temptation God,
Send me speeding in the other direction.
Forgive me for the mistakes I make on repeat;
Like a stuck record, I can’t seem to move on.
Help me to break the cycle, Lord God
Lead me into a better way of being.
3.
Recreate, clean up and renew my heart, God;
Though I have sinned, please don’t turn away from me.
Fill me with Your presence; infect me with Your Joy;
Burn up everything wrong in me with the fire of Your Spirit.
As you do,
Give me the words to help others;
The wisdom to lead my friends toward you.
Forgive my sins, and allow me to feel the warmth of your forgiveness.
Based on Psalm 51
Buy 500 Prayers for Young People from Amazon or Eden. You are very welcome to reproduce these prayers.
MARTIN SAUNDERS 