A Prayer to Recognize the Merits of Christ

I know that I do not usually post on Sundays. However, as I was preparing for services, rereading my sermon notes, I wrote this prayer for myself and I believe that it would be a good prayer for consideration as people prepare themselves for the corporate worship of God:

Lord Jesus, thank You for paying the price for my sin by Your death in my place. Thank You for the divine gift of a cleansed soul and a purified heart enabling me, by Your race, to come boldly before the throne of grace, to have full ccess to my Creator and my God.

I do not come with the pretense that I have merited anything. For I know that I am not only a sinner, but that even now, the good that I do, I do not do myself, but rather the Spirit of Christ, who dwells in me, works out Your good in my life.

Keep me, Lord Jesus, from any semblance of pride, for apart from You, I can do nothing.

Keep me Lord Jesus, from the patterns of legalism, thinking that if I jump through the right hoops, then I deserve access to You. For You have given Yourself for my pardon as well as for my peace with God.

Help me to trust in no other person and in no other thing. May my proclamation always be -

it is by Christ alone,

by grace alone,

through faith alone

for God's glory alone

that I might pray to You, that I might read and understand Your word, that I might worship and praise You with the saints.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Pastor Ed