A Prayer for Good Friday 2015
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God, slain for the sin of the whole world, with penitent hearts we come to your cross, pleading for mercy and forgiveness. Our sins—and they are many—have added to the burden of your suffering and have nailed you to the accursed tree. For us you tasted the agony of the utter darkness that we might not perish, but have everlasting life. Have mercy upon us.
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God, embrace us with your love, and forgive us all our sins. Your death brings healing to the soul, peace to the mind, cleansing to the heart. If it were for sin, we could not come; for our hands are dirty, our lips are unclean, and our hearts are dark. But seeing you, despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom we hide our faces, despised and esteemed not…all for our sake, we come to be cleansed and forgiven.
Lord Jesus, Lamb of God, grant that we may hate sin and wickedness more and more as we look upon your cross. Our grateful hearts today find hope in your words, comfort in your promises, peace through your Spirit and salvation in your finished work on that cross, by which you have overcome sin, Satan, and death. We sing:
There for me the Savior stands,
shows his wounds and spreads his hands.
God is love! I know, I feel;
Jesus weeps and loves me still.
– “Depth of Mercy,” Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
O Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Jesus, Lamb of God, hear our prayer.
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
