Scripture teaches us to recognize and confess our many sins and our wickedness. We should not ignore or hide them before the face of God. Instead, we come to confess them with a humble, sorrow-filled and obedient heart.
Father, we have sinned against you. Holy Shepherd, we have strayed from you like lost lambs. We have wandered after the desires of our own sinful hearts. We have done what we should not have done. We have also not done what we should have. Restore us, we pray, for we are lost without you. Point our compasses back to you, for in you alone do we find our home. We ask this through the blood and sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Amen.
The Lord wants repentance and life for us. He has declared the forgiveness of sin through the sacrificial blood of his Lamb and our Savior, Jesus the Christ. He forgives all who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead. This is the good news of the gospel.
7:1 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
O Lord my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
Arise, O Lord, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
The Lord judges the peoples;
judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. (ESV)
1:1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
(ESV)
O God, all our desires for holiness, all our wisdom and all our good works come from you. Give us that peace that the world cannot give so that we might be free to follow your commands and free from the fear of our enemies to rest in the quietness of your protection. We ask this through the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Savior.
Lighten our worries and our burdens, O Lord. Still our hearts and quiet our thoughts. We know that you have promised to give your beloved sleep, and so we place our trust in you to defend us from all the perils and dangers of this and every night. We ask this through the love of your only Son our Savior Jesus Christ.
Give everyone a chance to pray to God what's on their heart.