When My Heart Condemns Me: A Prayer for the Battle Against Besetting Sin
O Lord, my God,
How often I stumble in the same place.
How often I grieve that I return
to the very sin that I hate.
The weakness of my flesh betrays me.
For I do not do the good I want.
This sin’s grip, its shame, its familiar chains,
presses heavily on my soul.
I confess that I am not strong enough to overcome it.
Prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love,
Do not let me grow comfortable in rebellion.
Do not let me make peace with what nailed You on that tree.
Let my grief over sin be real,
Let it drive me into Your arms, not away.
For Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
among whom I am the worst.
When the accuser whispers,
silence him with that old rugged cross,
where I found life at Christ’s expense.
When my own heart condemns me,
lift my eyes to the Righteous One
who stands in my defence.
Jesus, my advocate above,
My friend before the throne of love.
Though I fall,
I will rise again by Your mercy.
Though I sit in darkness,
You will be my light.
Though my sins rise up to condemn me,
The cross declares me free.
Though the enemy mocks my defeat,
I will wait for the God of my salvation,
I praise You, O Father,
For who is a God like you?
A Righteous God who pardons iniquity,
who does not retain anger forever,
who delights to show steadfast love,
who treads sin underfoot.
Cast my sins into the depths of the sea,
and remind me they are remembered no more.
I wait for You, O Lord my God;
My hope is in Your salvation.
Though I walk with a limp from my weakness,
I walk in the light of Your forgiveness.
O Christ, deliver me yet again.
Train my heart to love holiness.
Strengthen my hands to fight temptation.
And keep me until the day when sin is no more.
Oh, how I groan to see that day,
When faith gives way to sight,
When tears are wiped and death is undone.
The fight with sin will cease forever,
and the Lamb will be my everlasting light.
Clothed in white, faultless before Your throne,
I will sing the song of the redeemed,
where grace at last has brought me home.
Amen.