CONFESSION
I confess, O Lord, that I have failed to recognize what a great blessing my pastors have been. I have thought little of the thousands upon thousands who teach our children & youth in the schools of the LCMS. I have been stingy in my support of my own congregation & have barely given a thought to suporting the church's seminaries & universities. I have failed to express my thanks & love to our congregations' pastors & teachers. I have failed to pray for them. I have even sinned by thinking ill of them or gossiping about them. And I have ignored Your very own words directed to me, 'Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.' I think little of the very reason Your Church exists: 'The harvest is plentiful' I deserve to have Your precious pastors & teachers taken from me.
PRAYER
O Merciful Savior! Look not upon my manifold & horrid sins! I plead Your precious sacrifice on the cross for me! I plead Your resurrection, absolving the world & me from sin! I plead my baptism! Lord, forgive me! Lord, strengthen my love for Your Word, & for Your faithful pastors & teachers! Cause me to be a joy to them in all I do! Help me to pray daily for them! Remind me that the gifts these workers bring me are to be shared with the harassed & helpless! Make me generous in my support for them! Lord, make me cognizant of Your words every day of my life: 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'
--Rev. Matthew Harrison, The Luthera Witness, March 2019
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