“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11
As God promised to salvage and rebuild the ruined lives of His people after they were carried away into captivity for their sin and rebellion against Him, God still salvages and rebuilds ruined lives today by calling lost and condemned sinners to faith in Jesus and His cross for pardon and forgiveness and then recreating them and giving them new hearts by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word.
O gracious and merciful God, I have sinned and ruined the life You gave me. Forgive my sins for Jesus’ sake and renew my heart that I may live for You. Amen.
[Scripture quotations are taken from the Barbour Simplified KJV, copyright 2022, 2025. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc. Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved.]
“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them…” Exodus 20:3-5a
One of the ways people practice idolatry is to make God in their own image and likeness. We do this when we imagine that God thinks as we do, that our thoughts and ways are God’s thoughts and ways. But God clearly says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isa. 55:8). Rather than assuming God thinks as we do, God would have us conform our thoughts and ways to His, as revealed to us in the Scriptures, and repent of our sins and iniquities and place our faith in Christ Jesus and His cross.
Your ways and Your thoughts are true and right, O God. My thoughts and ways are not. Forgive my sins in the shed blood of Christ Jesus and cleanse my ways. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
[Scripture quotations are taken from the Barbour Simplified KJV, copyright 2022, 2025. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc. Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved.]
“Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:8
This refrain, found repeatedly in Psalm 107, urges us to thank and praise the LORD God for His undeserved goodness toward us when we look to Him for mercy. Even though we often turn aside from following Him and we fail to trust Him, when we confess our sins and turn to Him for pardon and forgiveness in Christ Jesus, He forgives our sins and promises us everlasting life.
Forgive us, O LORD, for our disobedience and sin and restore us as Your people for the sake of the atoning sacrifice of Your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
[Scripture quotations are taken from the Barbour Simplified KJV, copyright 2022, 2025. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc. Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved.]
“It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High, to declare Your loving-kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night, on an instrument of ten strings, and on the lyre, on the harp with a solemn sound.” Psalm 92:1-3
It is indeed good to continually thank and praise the LORD our God — with our voices and with musical instruments — for His mercy and for His faithfulness toward us in Christ Jesus, our Savior!
“We praise Thee, O God, our Redeemer, Creator, in grateful devotion our tribute we bring; we lay it before Thee, we kneel and adore Thee; we bless Thy holy name, glad praises we sing.” ( Tr. Julia B. Cory, 1902)
[Scripture quotations are taken from the Barbour Simplified KJV, copyright 2022, 2025. Used by permission of Barbour Publishing, Inc. Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683. All rights reserved.]
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
When Jesus was asked what the great commandment in God’s law was, He said it was to love God with all one’s heart, soul, and mind, and then to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Indeed, “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). If we love God with all our being, we will gladly and willingly obey His commandments from the heart, and if we love our neighbor as ourselves, we will not disobey parents, murder, commit adultery, steal, dishonor, slander, or even covet what belongs to our neighbor. Our failure to obey God’s holy commandments reveals our lack of love for God and our neighbor.
Forgive me, O God, for failing to love you and my neighbor and keep Your holy commandments. Pardon my sins for the sake of Jesus Christ’s holy life and His innocent sufferings and death in my stead. Amen.
[Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.]
