O Lord,
The more I read of sin offerings,
the more I feel the heaviness of my own guilt.
Even the sins I didn’t mean to commit,
even the failures I didn’t notice at first
they all matter to You.
They wound, they stain, they separate.
I confess, Father, that I like to minimize my sin.
I tell myself it was just a mistake,
I excuse it as weakness,
I bury it in forgetfulness.
But Your Word reminds me
even what I did in ignorance must be brought into the light.
You are too holy to ignore even the smallest shadow.
Yet You have made a way.
Blood covers what my excuses cannot.
A sacrifice is given for what I could never repay.
And when the priest sprinkled the blood,
when the smoke rose from the altar,
the guilt was removed, the sinner was forgiven.
So it is for me in Christ
His blood has spoken a better word over me.
So I come, Lord
not hiding, not pretending, not denying.
I lay bare the sins I know,
and I trust You with the sins I don’t even see.
Wash me in mercy.
Cleanse me in the sacrifice of Your Son.
Let forgiveness flow deeper than guilt,
until my soul can rest in the freedom of Your grace.
Amen.