An Indian pastor friend recently shared with me a series of prayers of repentance he wrote for himself and his fellow Indian pastors.[i] I’ve benefited from praying these prayers. It came at a good time as I’ve been walking through Piercing Heaven, a wonderful book of prayers from the Puritans that has strengthened my prayer life. Below is a prayer of repentance from Piercing Heaven, and the 37 prayers from my friend. I would encourage you to tailor each as prayers for yourself and your leaders.
My Sins! My Sins!
My heart is a sin-pool; I cannot even count the swarms of sinful thoughts, words, and actions that have flowed from it.
My head and my heart are full from the load of guilt that is on my soul. My mind and body are full of sin.
My sins, they stare at me! My creditors are upon me. Every commandment takes hold of me, for more than ten thousand talents, yes, ten thousand times ten thousand.
How endless then is the sum of my debts! If this whole world were filled up from earth to heaven with paper, and all this paper written over by mathematicians, yet, when all were added up, it would still fall inconceivably short of what I owe to the least of God’s commandments. For my debts are infinite, and my sins are increased. They are wrongs to an infinite Majesty.
…If my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my sins laid in the balance together, they would be heavier than the sand of the sea.
O Lord, you know my mighty sins. They have brought nothing but misery. What a mess I am in! I am sold as a slave to sin, cast out of your favor, cursed in my body, and cursed in my soul. I am cursed in my name, in my relations, and in all that I have.
My soul is within a step of death.
What do I do? Where will I go? Which way will I look? Where should I flee? What place could hide me from your presence, everywhere? What could secure me from your unlimited power?
…But is there any remedy for such woeful misery? Any mercy?
Yes! As sure as your promise is true, God, I will have pardon and mercy—if I now genuinely, and without reservation, turn by Christ to you.
So I thank you on the bended knees of my soul, O most merciful Jehovah, that your patience has waited for me. Because I have died as it was before, I would have perished forever.
And now I adore your grace, and accept the offer of your mercy.
I renounce all my sins, and resolve by your grace to set myself against them, and to follow you in holiness and righteousness all the days of my life. Amen.
--Joseph Alleine
Father, our Lord…
1. Forgive me for my vices and lusts.
2. Forgive me for my secret sins.
3. Forgive me for any lying, double talk, slander, bragging, or foolish talk in my tongue.
4. Forgive me for not investing into my wife and my children as I ought.
5. Forgive me for not treating my wife with the utmost honor.
6. Forgive me for not investing into my staff as I ought.
7. Forgive me for my love for my church and not the Church.
8. Forgive me for only serving my caste (class).
9. Forgive us pastors for turning our congregations into places of business.
10. Forgive us pastors, if we depend on offerings and tithes, not you.
11. Forgive us for our competition with one another and lack of brotherly love.
12. Forgive us for neglecting the ministry of evangelism.
13. Forgive us if we esteem the church, the church people, and the gift of ministry more than Christ.
14. Forgive us for overburdening the church with unnecessary rules or legislation.
15. Forgive us for not using a season of closure to evaluate our own shortcomings.
16. Forgive us of our spiritual pride and arrogance.
17. Forgive us when we choose sleep over early morning prayer.
18. Forgive us, pastors, for manipulating church positions.
19. Forgive us if titles and positions have caused us pride.
20. Forgive us if we have praised ourselves.
21. Forgive us if we have twisted the Scriptures for selfish gain.
22. Forgive us if we have not been willing to faithfully inquire of the poor, needy, and widows of the church.
23. Forgive us if we haven’t stepped in to intervene in abusive relationships or supported unbiblical divorce.
24. Forgive us, the teachers, if we have glorified our interpretations over Scripture.
25. Forgive us for forgetting fasting and giving place to lust, and to forgetting sacrifices and rejoicing.
26. Forgive us if we have not given money to other ministries that need it, and have spent it for our own benefit.
27. Forgive us if we have stolen a tenth of the money we have been entrusted with from our churches.
28. Forgive us if we have forgotten the last days and build buildings for glory and buy and accumulate land.
29. Forgive us if we have prepared and preached without waiting for the word of the Spirit.
30. Forgive us if, out of expedience, we have given church responsibilities to those who are not qualified.
31. Forgive us if we speak harshly from the flesh when we preach.
32. Forgive us if we have shown favoritism to our flock.
33. Forgive us if we have grown weary of the tribulations of men, the struggles of the devil, and financial troubles.
34. Forgive us, the pastors, if we have lost the zeal, the tearful praying that we had in the beginning.
35. Forgive us if we depend on music and loudspeakers without emphasizing the presence of God in worship.
36. Forgive those who have been ungrateful to our ministry.
Amen. Thank you for your forgiveness, Lord.
Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash
[i] I’ve slightly edited this version.