A Heartfelt, but Hope-Filled Lamentation...

I have done so little since I came into the world of the great work I was sent into the world about, so very little to answer the end of my creation or of my redemption, of my birth and of my baptism; I have certainly profited no more by the means of grace, and though in close fellow with You, taking in even the symbols of Your body and Your blood, I gain no more benefit than from any other bread and juice...

I have been as a fig tree planted in the vineyard, and You have come many years seeking fruit from me but have found none, instead You have, sadly, all too often found the remnants of the old, fleshly tree. Therefore You might justly have cut me down and thrown me into the fire (Matthew 3:10) for using up the ground: (Luke 13:6-7)

Ah, but Lord, as is Your wont, You have exercised grace and patience! Though You have come looking for grapes, but beheld wild grapes; (Isaiah 5:4) [for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit to myself.(Hosea 10:1)], again Lord, Your eyes were patient, and You looked to that One Who came in my stead. There can be nothing but a falling to the ground in thanksgiving and worship before such good and gracious God!

Lord, I have, time and again, known the right thing to do, but have failed to do it. (James 4:17) I have hid my Master’s money, so to speak, (Matthew 25:18) and therefore, like the wicked and slothful servant deserve the doom of my Master. (Matthew 25:26) But once again Lord, Your eyes are not on me, but on the crucified One. I have been an unfaithful steward who has more than wasted my Lord’s possessions; (Luke 16:1) just as You Word says: "one sinner destroys much good". (Ecclesiastes 9:18)

O Lord, how often has there has been money in my hand to buy wisdom, and yet I have had no sense todo so? (Proverbs 17:16) Or, like the fool, my heart has been inclined to evil. (Ecclesiastes 10:2) As life passes all too quickly I see that my youth and the dawn of life were vanity, (Ecclesiastes 11:10) and I am bringing my years to an end like a sigh. (Psalm 90:9)

But all of this Lord, all of it is under Your torn flesh and Your shed blood… And thanks be to God, for apart from that truth there would be no hope, I would have not hope at all. How could I hope to make amends for even one offense, let alone for the enormity of all of my offense together? Oh Lord - thanks be to Your mercy and to Your grace - given before the world ever began...