A Prayer For Ash Wednesday

Heavenly Father, before you all hearts are known. Try as we might, there is no hiding from you the sin in our lives. You are not deceived by our clever cover-ups, nor our elaborate justifications. We must stop pretending that we have it all together. Before you, O God, we must lay our hearts bare. As we come face-to-face with our fragile humanity and our need for forgiveness, we ask that your Spirit would descend upon us and cleanse us of our wrongdoing. Give us clean hearts and renew in us a right spirit. And as we put aside our sinfulness, give us strength to move boldly forward in pursuit of your righteousness. By your grace, give us eyes to see what kind of people we are becoming. This we pray in the name of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.