Six Prayers of Repentance

In chapter twenty-six of Soul Physicians, I outline a biblical theology of putting off the old manner of life (compare Ephesians 4:17-19). I embed within that theology a “Prayer of Repentance” related to each of six areas of our spiritual life:

• Our Relationship to God

• Our Relationship to Others

• Our Relationship to Ourselves

• Our Rational Beliefs/Mindsets

• Our Volitional Behaviors/Motivations

• Our Emotions

Today’s post shares these six prayers.

A Prayer of Relational Repentance: My Spiritual Relationship to God

“Father, I come home to You. I confess as sin my false lovers. I confess as sin living like the old person that I used to be. I confess as sin my spiritual adultery. I acknowledge to You and to myself that my false lovers are horrible lovers and that my pursuit of them is ugly and putrid. How foolish of me to ever believe that anyone but You could ever satisfy the longings of my soul. How shameful. How disrespectful. Forgive me my relational sin. I acknowledge that You alone are my Supreme Good. I acknowledge that You alone are gracious and compassionate. I return to You as my Forgiving Father. I return to Your Son as my Worthy Groom. I return to Your Holy Spirit as my Inspiring Mentor. I love You, Lord. Renew my vision of You as a totally competent and totally good God—boundless in holy love.”

A Prayer of Relational Repentance: My Social Relationships to Others

“Father, I confess as sin my living for self, loving self. I will put off shepherding myself and focus on shepherding others. I reject all the self sins: self-sufficiency, self-promotion, self-protection, selfishness, self-centeredness. I confess as sin my cruel, harsh, manipulative, demanding, shaming, blaming, maiming way of treating others. Most of all, I confess as sin how far I’ve moved from reflecting You and Your radically other-centered Trinitarian existence. I am putting off the flesh, the characteristic ways I used to relate and I’m putting on the Spirit, the new me created to relate like You.”

A Prayer of Relational Repentance: My Identity in Christ

“Father, I’ve been so like Adam and Eve. Running. Hiding. Defensive. Playing dress up. All because I don’t believe You are who You say You are—the Forgiving Father. What sin! I put off my shame identity. I reject my sense of abandonment, ruin, rejection, and condemnation. I put off my futile attempts to quiet my inner restlessness. Instead, I rest in You. I rest in who I am in Christ and to Christ. It’s ugly of me to try to beautify myself. It’s a slap in the face to Your Son, my Savior. Forgive me. Cleanse me. Enlighten me by Your Holy Spirit to grasp how much You love me and how loving You are.”

A Prayer of Rational Repentance: Putting Off My Old Beliefs and Mindsets

“Father, I’ve finally come to my senses. I confess as sin my foolish belief that I can make life work apart from You. I’ve arrogantly suppressed the truth of how perfectly well You care for me. I’ve denied Your fatherly love for me. I’ve sinned against You by believing Satan’s (the False Seducer) smaller story, fleshly mindset that You are not my Supreme Good. I’ve allowed my view of reality to become filled with contemptuous images of You. I’ve allowed my mind to be squeezed into the mold of this temporal world, living according to the dominant plot theme of the earthly story. I’ve been like a deaf man straining to hear the Gospel story. I’ve denied the Cross. I return to You now repenting of these idols of my heart. Though I am not worthy in myself to be called Your child, by faith I claim my adoption in Christ. Thank You for forgiving me.”

A Prayer of Volitional Repentance: Putting Off My Old Behaviors and Motivations 

“Father, I’ve sinned against You by walking in the way of the sinner, by following the self-centered pathway of _______. I must put off choosing compulsively and put on choosing courageously. I must put off the old enslaved pathways and put on my new free, empowering pathways. Help me to quit coddling, cuddling, pampering, and spoiling my flesh. Empower me to be ruthlessly fierce in rejecting it and nailing it to the Cross. Reveal my secret sins, show me the patterns that I’m blind to, help me to detect my fleshly pathways. I reject my fleshly inclinations, patterns, and character. I put on the new characteristic of _________. I reject my characteristic approach to life of _________ and by Christ’s resurrection power I replace it with my new manner of life.”

A Prayer of Emotional Repentance: Putting Off My Old Mood States

“Father, I’ve sinned against You by worshipping feelings instead of worshipping You. My current mood state of _______ exposes how desperately I’m trying to live without You. My failure to face my feelings expose my distrust in Your ability to care for me. My refusal to soothe my soul in You exposes my doubts about Your goodness. I put off my emotional duplicity replacing it, in the power of Your Spirit, with emotional integrity. I will face whatever I feel and bring it to You. I put off my emotional lasciviousness. I put off indulging my fleshly passions. I confess as sin my addiction to ___________. I recognize it for what it is: a symptom of the deeper disorder within me, a spiritual, relational, mental, willful disorder. Forgive me. Empower me to manage my moods for Your glory and the good of others.”

The Rest of the Story

The Bible never tells us to put off without also telling us how God empowers us to put on the new person we are in and through Christ. Tomorrow we share six prayers of renewal.

Join the Conversation

Which of the six prayers hits home the most for you today? How would you word your prayer in that area?

Tags: Christian Living, Mortification, Prayer, Putting Off, Repentance, Soul Physicians

How I Write Versus How I Live

I’ve been thinking lately how difficult it is to live what I write. In my books like Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends, I write about living the Christian life and being a Christian friend.

Frequently I fail at both.

While pondering my dilemma, I stumbled upon a quote from Samuel Johnson’s The Rambler (1750, Essay 14). (See Sympathy for Hypocrites by John Zahl at his blog Mockingbird.)

“It is not difficult to conceive that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For, without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear, and is in the same state with him that teaches upon land the art of navigation, to whom the sea is always smooth, and the wind always prosperous…

We are, therefore, not to wonder that most fail, amidst tumult and snares and danger, in the observance of those precepts, which they laid down in solitude, safety, and tranquility, with a mind unbiased, and with liberty unobstructed… Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory.”

Well put. Two lines summarize it best for me.

“It is not difficult to conceive that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives.”

“Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory.”

I want to live well what I write. However, I’m not there yet.

More importantly, I want to live well what is written in God’s Word. I’m certainly not there.

I’m thankful for the grace of God in Christ.

Join the Conversation

How do you deal with living imperfectly your own teaching, writing, or counseling?

Tags: Hypocrisy, John Zahl, Samuel Johnson, Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends

Trying to Paint Over Bad Paint: The Foolish Futility of Self-Sufficiency 

When we moved into our current home five years ago, we moaned when we saw that the back deck had been painted rather than stained. We tried every known remedy to remove all the paint. The best we could do was remove about 50%.

Of course, that means that, if we’re lucky, we can go two years between having to scrape, prime, and re-paint our deck. We keep having to paint over bad paint. And no matter how good the new paint is, it won’t stick for long. What we really need is a totally fresh start.

Trying to Cover Over Our Sins

After scraping, priming, and painting my deck the past few days, I awoke this morning not only sore, but also reflecting. Ever since Adam and Eve, we have tried to paint over bad paint. We have tried to cover over our sins.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:7).

For Adam and Eve, it didn’t work for two years, or even two seconds. Immediately when faced with the pure holy love of God, they “hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).

Though “covered,” Adam realized they were totally exposed. “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:10).

Receiving God’s Coverings

What did Adam and Eve need instead? What do we need? They needed to receive God’s covering rather than trying to cover their sin on their own.

“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21).

So why try to cover? It’s much more than ignorance; it’s foolishness. It’s much more than self-effort; it’s willful, arrogant self-sufficient, proud rebellion.

John R. Stott reveals the depraved nature of our self-sufficient souls.

“The proud human heart is there revealed. We insist on paying for what we have done. We cannot stand the humiliation of acknowledging our bankruptcy and allowing somebody else to pay for us. The notion that this somebody else should be God himself is just too much to take. We would rather perish than repent, rather lose ourselves than humble ourselves. . . . But we cannot escape the embarrassment of standing stark naked before God. It is no use our trying to cover up like Adam and Eve in the garden. Our attempts at self-justification are as ineffectual as their fig-leaves. We have to acknowledge our nakedness, see the divine substitute wearing our filthy rags instead of us, and allow him to clothe us with his own righteousness” (Stott, The Cross of Christ, pp. 162-163).

Our God-Dependent Response to Our Sin

In Soul Physicians, I imagine a God-dependent response to our sin looking something like a combination of Genesis 3 with the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15).

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. Standing exposed as sinfully failed and flawed male and female, naked before Him with whom they have to deal.

Then the naked man and the naked woman heard the song of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, as He always had for fellowship. And they stayed.

Adam cried out to God, ‘I am unworthy to be called Your son, for I have sinned against You in my self-sufficiency. I have failed to be the courageous man You designed and called me to be. I have been a coward rather than a protector. Make me like one of your animals, for I am soul-less.’

Eve cried out to God, ‘I am unworthy to be called Your daughter, for I have sinned against You in my self-sufficiency. I have failed to be the completing woman You designed and called me to be. I have poisoned rather than nourished. Make me like one of Your animals, for I am soul-less.”

Instead, the LORD God slew the precious animals He had handcrafted. He shed blood. Carefully, tenderly, with tears streaming down His face, He hand-crafted robes of righteousness for his son and daughter.

Then He ran to them, threw His arms around them, and kissed them repeatedly. Father said to His angelic servants, ‘Quick, bring the best robes that I have hand-crafted and put them on my son and my daughter. Put wedding rings on their fingers and sandals of peace on their feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine and this daughter of mine were dead and they are alive again.’ So they began to celebrate!” (Soul Physicians, p. 105).

Grace means never having to cover my sin. But Adam and Eve, having doubted God’s goodness, do not focus on His grace. Instead of depending upon God, they depend upon self.

Being naked and afraid, they hide. They turn their backs on and run from God. They work, sewing fig leaves together to make coverings for themselves. They attempt to make themselves acceptable by trying to beautify their ugliness.

In the flesh, we use every strategy at our disposal, every scheme we can imagine, to not need God’s grace. But our efforts are futile. Much more than trying to cover over old paint, we’re trying to cover over sin with the greatest sin of all—works-righteousness and self-sufficiency.

Join the Conversation

What fig leaves do we sew to cover our shame? What view of God does such shame and hiding suggest?

Tags: Adam and Eve, Genesis 3, Grace, John Stott, Sin, Soul Physicians

He Is Risen! I’m Risen Too!

We all love to exchange the traditional Easter greeting:                              

“He is risen.”

“He’s risen indeed!”

The Bible suggests that Christians add another greeting:

“He is risen.”

“I’m risen, too!”

Resurrected with Christ

The Apostle Paul says it plainly. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above” (Colossians 3:1).

In Ephesians, Paul goes even further in applying Christ’s resurrection to the Christian. He prays that we might know, “His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20).

The same power that resurrected Christ resides in every Christian.

Tapping into Our RPMs

Of course, any honest Christians has to ask, “If I’m raised with Christ, if I have the same power implanted in me that raised Christ, then why don’t I live like I’m dead to sin?”

The answer is simple, yet profound. Instead of living victoriously in Christ, we live defeated lives because we try to live in our own power.

Paul tried the same futile approach before he became a Christian—placing his confidence in his own strength (Philippians 3:1-6). That’s why as a believer his focus was laser-like. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10).

Paul understood what we must understand—we have to tap into Christ’s resurrection power. We have to avail ourselves of and apply the empowerment that’s already in us.

We don’t do that alone. In Ephesians 3, Paul prays that we, “may have power together with all the saints” to know Christ’s love, to be filled with God’s fullness, and to experience the immeasurable power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:17-21).

We need “RPMs.” No, not Revolutions Per Minute. But Resurrection Power Multipliers. (Which explains why I call my ministry “RPM Ministries.”) As we commune with Christ and connect with Christians we tap into Christ’s resurrection power. As we cling to Christ the Vine, His power flows into our lives so that we can produce fruit to His glory.

Applying Our Identity in Christ

One of the most powerful ways we can “tap into Christ’s resurrection power” is through knowing, memorizing, meditating upon, and applying the truth of our new identity in Christ. We are co-crucified with Christ and we are co-resurrected with Christ. We are more than conquerors in Christ. We are saints with a new nature and sons and daughters with new power.

To help Christians to apply these truths, I’ve created a five-page resource Who I Am In Christ  (excerpted from Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction). It paraphrases over 150 verses about your new identity in Christ. Applying these truths to your life will help you to personalize the reality that, “He is risen. So am I!”

Join the Conversation

Which of the verses concerning your identity in Christ will you apply in order to tap into Christ’s resurrection power?

Tags: Easter, Good Friday, Resurrection, Soul Physicians

Soul Physicians Book Trailer: The Remedy to Secular Psychology 

Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction is the remedy to secular psychology.

Learn more about Soul Physicians as you enjoy the video book trailer where I share about:

• The main message of Soul Physicians

• What motivated me to write Soul Physicians (I think you’ll be surprised…)

• Who is the target audience for Soul Physicians (Hint—You!)

• What’s unique about Soul Physicians?

Watch the video on our RPM Ministries YouTube Channel.

Visit our Soul Physicians page to read a free sample chapter and learn how you can order an autographed copy of Soul Physicians at 45% off.

Tags: Book Video Trailer, Soul Physicians, Video

Emotional Intelligence: The ABCs of Emotions

Part 14: Free Thirty-Page PDF: Learning the Biblical ABCs of Emotional Intelligence

Introduction: You’re reading Part 14 (the final installment) in a blog mini-series on Emotional Intelligence. Read Part 1: Emotions: God’s Idea, Part 2: Why We Feel What We Feel, Part 3: Good News about Good Moods, Part 4: What Went Wrong?, Part 5: Our Emotions and Our Bodies, Part 6: How’s Your EI?, Part 7: How to Help Others, Part 8: Emotions Gone Mad, Part 9: What’s Wrong with Stuffing?, Part 10: Holding Onto Hope, and Part 11: Learning the ABCs of Emotional Maturity, Part 12: Five Tools for Your Emotional Toolbox, and Part 13: A Dozen Emotional Intelligence Lesson Plans. I’ve developed this series from material in my book Soul Physicians.

Free Resource: Your PDF Copy of Learning the Biblical ABCs of Emotional Intelligence

RPM Ministries is all about changing lives with Christ’s changeless truth. I know you want a changed life. And I know you want to change lives.

Because of that vision, I want to offer you a free thirty-page PDF version of this entire series. For the PDF version, I’ve renamed the series: Learning the Biblical ABCs of Emotional Intelligence. Click on that title, and “poof” the document is yours to use in your life and ministry.

More Resources for Your Journey: The Remedy for Secular Psychology

If you find that resource (and this blog mini-series) practical in your life and ministry, then I think you will also find the original source to be beneficial: Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. Click on the book title to learn more about Soul Physicians and to purchase a copy at 40% off.

Soul Physicians is the remedy to secular psychology. It explores how God’s Word addresses life’s seven ultimate questions. It equips you to change lives with Christ’s changeless truth.

Tags: Biblical Counseling, Emotional Intelligence, Emotions, Feelings, Soul Physicians