Dear Church of the Open Bible,
This is a day of fasting for us as a church. For those of you who are applying our sermon application of “Pursuing Repentance,” this is a day of confession and prayer. There are several passages that can guide us as we ask the Lord to expose sin in our lives and trust in Christ’s work on the cross to forgive us (Ps. 50; Dan 9:3-19; James 5:16; 1 Jn 2:1-14), but I wanted to draw our attention to Psalm 130.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities. - Psalm 130:1–8
As God exposes areas of sin in our lives, may we confess our inability to stand before Him on our own. May we turn to Him for forgiveness and redemption, knowing His steadfast love toward us in Christ. And finally, may His forgiveness of us produce a proper posture before Him (v. 4, “that you may be feared”). May He give us a joyful reverence and determination to turn from sin, placing our hope in Him and Him alone!