Lord God,
You are the God who goes before Your people in consuming fire
not because they are righteous,
but because You are faithful.
You drove out nations greater and mightier than Israel,
yet You reminded them,
“It is not for your righteousness or uprightness of heart
that the Lord gives you this land.”
You know our hearts, Lord
stubborn, proud, prone to forget.
And still You fight for us.
Still You show mercy where judgment is deserved.
Still You remain faithful when we are faithless.
I confess, Lord,
that I am no different from Israel.
I am quick to claim credit for what You have done,
slow to remember what You have forgiven.
I turn blessings into badges of self worth,
and grace into grounds for boasting.
Forgive me, O Lord,
for trusting in my obedience
more than in Your mercy.
You called Your people “stiff necked,”
and yet You did not abandon them.
When they fashioned a golden calf
and exchanged Your glory for an idol,
You raised up Moses to intercede.
You listened to the prayer of one man
who fell on his face for forty days,
and You spared a nation because of his pleading.
O God,
thank You for the greater Mediator
for Jesus, who stood between Your wrath and my ruin,
who bore my guilt
so I might stand forgiven.
You wrote the covenant again on new tablets
a second chance carved by grace.
How tender is Your patience, Lord!
You do not discard what is broken;
You rewrite what we shattered.
Your mercy gives new beginnings
where sin deserved endings.
So write again upon my heart,
O Faithful One.
Etch Your Word where rebellion once reigned.
Let repentance be the ink,
and forgiveness the seal.
Break my stubbornness,
bend my pride,
until my will bows joyfully to Yours.
You said that the land was given
so the nations would know Your power,
not Israel’s worth.
So let my life tell that same story.
Let every victory point to You,
every answered prayer proclaim Your grace.
Make me a living testimony
that salvation is by mercy alone.
Lord, when I am tempted to despair over my failures,
remind me of Your intercession
that even now, Christ pleads for me at Your right hand.
And when I am tempted to boast in success,
remind me that grace is the only ground on which I stand.
You are the God who forgives the stubborn hearted,
who renews the covenant again and again,
until grace has the final word.
So take this heart of stone
and make it flesh.
Take this proud spirit
and make it humble.
Take this sinner
and make him Yours.
In the name of Jesus,
the Mediator of a better covenant,
whose blood speaks mercy louder than my sin,
Amen.