In the parable of the Prodigal we see the young man doing something that many of us could stand to do more of. Maybe you've noticed it, but I hadn't until it was pointed out in a book I read not too many months ago. Recall that the young man forms a plan before starting on his way home. He will express his repentance to his father and ask to be treated as a hired servant. Fair enough. As a plan, it's not a bad plan. But what happens when he is face to face with his father? Notice how his rehearsed speech stops in the middle. He expresses his repentance, nothing more. He proposes no plan.
When we think we have figured out what we'd like God to do for us and we start to pray, maybe we should consider leaving off our requests. Maybe we should stop once we have repented. Maybe asking God's forgiveness is quite enough. We don't have to tell him how to create fame and fortune in us. He knows better than we do what is right and good for us.
"I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment. But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them, and I pray You of Your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor sinful being."
May we walk as forgiven people today.
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