The following originally appeared as part of "Rooted and Established in Love—Week 1: The Living Tree."
Prayer of Confession
Creator God, we thank you for the beauty of your creation and for giving us the privilege of caring for it. We turn to you in prayer as the Maker, Creator, Author of all, acknowledging not only your sovereignty and lordship over all, but also praising you for your creativity, your providence, and your ongoing sustaining work in the creation.
God, you saw the mountain ranges, outlining the peaks and the valleys and dusting them with snow, before they came into existence. You imagined the bright colors of the fish in the ocean before the waters teemed with life. You knew the composition of a single human cell, the intricacies and delicate balance of our bodies before they were formed from the dust.
You knew each and every one of us long before we were conceived. You knew our thoughts and our actions, and you had a vision for how our lives would flourish and grow. We praise you as the one who is Lord over the big and the small, the vast expanses and the miniscule particles, the big picture and the daily details.
We confess that so often we lose sight of the myriad ways you created and continue to create: through scientific advancement, through minds enabled to think and reason, through ways to cultivate farmland to feed both human and animal, through the gifted minds and hands of those who have the ability to teach young and old alike. For the times we forget that your hand is at work in all these things, continuing your good work of creating, forgive us, Lord.
For the times we waste, destroy, or apathetically let go, we ask for forgiveness. You created all things and then pronounced them good. You created us from the dust, yet in your own image—your image that is beautiful and perfect and good. You desire flourishing for creation and for all humankind—but how often we fail, underestimating your plans. Instead of flourishing, we hide, we feel unworthy, we do not feel equipped enough or loved enough to do what you are calling us to do. Forgive us, Creator God.
We pray that in your creation and in our lives as those made in your image we would flourish and grow in the grace and knowledge of you, our Lord and Savior. May your Holy Spirit fill us so that we might serve you with our whole heart, mind and strength. May we with all creation submit to you as Lord of all.
—Kathryn Roelofs © 2025 ReformedWorship.org, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Song
“Have Thine Own Way, Lord!” Pollard
