Prayer of Lament: Amos 5

Here’s a prayer of lament based on Amos 5 written by members of the Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY in 2009.

Prayer of Lament

(based on Amos 5)

Holy, Perfect God,
We admit that we put other things above you in our lives.
We say we long for you,

but we actually long for more money and more comfort.
Lord, you will come with darkness for us

if our hearts remain captive to anything but you.
We confess that we are openly rebellious against you.
We are fallen, never to rise again unless you lift us up.
Lord, we have failed to worship you with our hearts.
Our religious gatherings are hollow

because our hearts are slaves to lesser things.
We pay you a visit on Sunday,

but we long to go home to our other gods.
Lord God, we confess that we break your heart.
We gather before you half-heartedly,

waiting to go back to worshipping ourselves.

When we truly worship you,

we will seek good and not evil.
We will hate evil and love good.
Lord God, have mercy.
Renew our hearts within us.

Make us long for you, our God.
Amen.

— Posted on The Open Sourcebook website.