Instead of a bible verse for this week, we looked at the Believer’s Prayer that my BSF leader (Mitch) led his dad to pray ten days before his dad’s passing. Mitch prepared a journal of his dad’s last days which we read as background information to the prayer, and the link to it is: https://www.mitchandkim.com/post/my-dad-s-last-days

Here is the prayer:

“God, I know I am a sinner and have fallen short of your glory.
There is nothing I can do to make up for this,
but I believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life,
died on the cross for my sins,
was buried, and then rose again on the third day
to conquer the grave and my sin.
I ask you, God, to come into my heart and make me new. Amen”

This reading followed from our theme of the previous week on judgement, where the question of “What about ‘good’ people who do not accept Christ”, was raised. 

The main question we looked at is very personal: What is your response to this prayer, and are you able to join with Mitch and his dad in praying it to God – and if not, what hinders you?

The other questions included — Does this prayer cover all of the essentials we need to bring to God to confess our faith? Or can you think of other things might be needed?

Other suggestions

Two people from our group suggested the following changes:

Line 1 — God, I know I am a sinner, and I confess my sins, and ask you to forgive me as I believe you will

Final line — … make me new, and lead me to follow in your footsteps

My response

I found Mitch’s journal quite touching, not just because he is a friend, but his care for his dad is something all of us who have non-believing loved ones can share. And the decision faced by his dad is one we all face, not just once when we accept Jesus as Lord of our lives, but each day as we are bombarded with noisy persuasion to worship the secular gods of our age. These gods include the worship of self, pride in our so-called achievements, identification with factions in the divisive social issues of our age, the worship or demonising of the faces that fill our television screens, and the so-called intellectual minds that misguide our society – it is all so much self-worship and the rubbish of decay and death.

Our daily choice is something Paul also faced, and he outlines the consequences in Galatians 6:8, “he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
Paul explained he could have boasted in many worldly things – his status, accomplishments, and heritage – but he realised that is of no ultimate value, and states in Romans 14:23 that “everything that does not come from faith is sin.”
He sees that every worldly thing pales in comparison to the gift from the sacrifice of Jesus, and in Galations 6:14 he says, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

It would have been easy for Mitch’s dad to be trapped in self-justification, he had spent 96 years going in one direction, and it’s not easy to say “I was wrong for all that time”. But if we try to justify our past, we become trapped in that path, and enslaved to our sin. So, repentance needs a complete reversal in direction, and a complete break.

Mitch describes how after his dad accepted Jesus as his Lord, he became the most beautiful person in the world, and the hospital staff were amazed. That transformation can be accomplished by God in each one of us, as we come to know His perfect peace, and rest in His grace and mercy.

I liked Mitch’s closing statement that, “If you haven’t yet put your trust in Jesus Christ, I would pray that you would do so now” – it speaks to all of us.

Praise God for his grace to Mitch’s dad!