February 9, 2023 - 1 John 3:21, 22, 24

“Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.” 1 John 3:21, 22, 24 NLT

Jesus, we praise you that we don’t have to feel guilty when we come before you because you made a way for us to be forgiven and washed clean of our sin. We are so grateful for how you redeemed us. How wonderful is it that we can walk into your presence with bold confidence. Unlike the priests in the Old Testament, we don’t have to go through all kinds of rituals to make sure we were clean enough to enter the holy of holies. We don’t have to worry if we did everything correctly or if our sacrifice was good enough to cover our sins. Your perfectly pure blood completely covers all my sins. All I must do is come to you with a contrite heart and ask for your forgiveness. Your death tore the veil at the entrance of the Holy of Holies. You made a way for each of us to approach you directly. What an amazing gift you have given us. Thank you is too small of an offering. We want to dedicate our whole lives to you in return for what you have done for us.

Lord, we give you all of us - our dreams and desires, our future, our will, our reputation. You are more important than any of those things. We want to say, “yes” to anything you request. We want to live our life in a way that brings you pleasure, honor, and glory. Help us to walk in obedience to all that you ask of us. Help us live our life by the principles we find in your Word. Let us live in a way that allows us to stay in close fellowship with you. We don’t want to allow anything in our lives that would separate us from you, Lord.

In Jesus name, amen.