At our church conferences on the Washington District this year, we are joining together in praying this prayer for rebirth—a prayer that has been on my heart for quite some time. We invite you to pray it with us. Beyond that, we invite you to come with us into the transformed life into which a prayer like this can lead us.
God of the ages;
Source of our birth and our rebirth;
Author of every blessing that we experience;
Origin of every breath that we breathe:
We confess before you that we often prefer the comfort of our spiritual womb to the unsettling transformation of being born anew in Christ.
We often choose the familiarity of our sinful patterns over the joyful adventure of rebirth.
We often choose old life over new life.
Forgive us, we pray. Bring us to our knees in humble repentance, that we might kneel at the beautiful altar of your abundant grace.
Cleanse us.
Reshape us.
Transform us.
Where hatred occupies the hidden chambers of our soul, enable us to be reborn into the kind of love that refuses to allow hatred to have the final word.
Where indifference to human suffering has become normative for us, enable us to be reborn into an ever-deepening sensitivity to those who are broken and marginalized.
Where worship has become a shallow routine for us; where evangelism and witness have become dreaded disciplines that we are happy to leave to other people; and where protecting what we believe to be ours has become more important to us than generosity and sacrifice…
…Enable us to be reborn in such a way that the mind and heart of Christ become OUR mind and heart; that his Way becomes OUR Way.
Where discipleship has become an empty buzzword for us, initiate within us a rebirth of our willingness to allow the Lordship of Jesus to hold authority over every portion of our living.
We are yours, O God. Before we belong to anything or anyone else, we are yours.
We recommit ourselves to your Way.
We re-devote ourselves to your Truth.
We rededicate ourselves to your Life.
Usher us into a spiritual rebirth, that our lives might become a song of praise to you…