Grace for the Repentant Heart
Confession and Assurance of Pardon
“Yet I Sin” from The Valley of Vision
Eternal Father, Thou art good beyond all thought, but I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind; my lips are ready to confess, but my heart is slow to feel, and my ways reluctant to amend.
I bring my soul to thee; break it, wound it, bend it, mould it. Unmask to me sin’s deformity, that I may hate it, and flee from it.
I have seen the purity and beauty of thy perfect law, yet I daily violate and contemn its precepts.
All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them cry pardon. Work in me a deeper repentance, and grant that through these tears I may see more clearly the glories of the saving cross.
Adapted from 2 Corinthians 7:10, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 57:15, Micah 7:18-19
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.”
He revives the spirit of the lowly and restores the heart of the contrite.
Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression?
He delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
- All Creatures of Our God and King by William Henry Draper and St. Francis of Assisi
