Puritan Prayers is a fantastic site with a solid collection of prayers from the Puritans. I used one of them tonight after the first block of songs at church. I love the movement from adoration to confession of sin and then through to thanksgiving. Here it is:
Thou Eternal God, Thine is surpassing greatness, unspeakable goodness, super-abundant grace; I can as soon count the sands of ocean’s ‘lip’ as number thy favours towards me; I know but a part, but that part exceeds all praise. I thank thee for personal mercies, a measure of health, preservation of body, comforts of house and home, sufficiency of food and clothing, continuance of mental powers, my family, their mutual help and support, the delights of domestic harmony and peace, the seats now filled that might have been vacant, my country, church, Bible, faith. But, O, how I mourn my sin, ingratitude, vileness, the days that add to my guilt, the scenes that witness my offending tongue; All things in heaven, earth, around, within, without, condemn me – the sun which sees my misdeeds, the darkness which is light to thee, the cruel accuser who justly charges me, the good angels who have been provoked to leave me, thy countenance which scans my secret sins, thy righteous law, thy holy Word, my sin-soiled conscience, my private and public life, my neighbours, myself – all write dark things against me. I deny them not, frame no excuse, but confess, ‘Father, I have sinned’; Yet still I live, and fly repenting to thy outstretched arms; thou wilt not cast me off, for Jesus brings me near, thou wilt not condemn me, for he died in my stead, thou wilt not mark my mountains of sin, for he levelled all, and his beauty covers my deformities. O my God, I bid farewell to sin by clinging to his cross, hiding in his wounds, and sheltering in his side.
Good one, right? (From here)
Each week that I lead the church service I normally do a prayer that involves confession of sin. That is something that is often missing from contemporary church services. We do corporate confession when we share the Lord’s Supper, but that is only once a month at Arvo Church slightly less at Night Church. So after the opening block of songs, I will normally flow off the back of the song, into confession and then onto the gospel and a prayer for the rest of our gathering.
I switch between prayers of confession from: the Common Prayer book; based on scripture; or using the wording from the song just sung. This was the first time using a Puritan prayer. I swapped the personal pronouns from singular to plural (I to we etc). It meant I probably tripped over a few words, but I think it was well received.
Does your contemporary, relaxed church service keep confession of sin type prayers in your gathering? If so, what does it look like? Feel free to leave a comment.
ps – warm fuzzy if you can name the Puritan in the pic above…