This prayer of confession and assurance of pardon is adapted from the Message version of Ephesians 2:1-10.

Holy God, there is always a temptation to be mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
We let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell us how to live.
We fill our lungs with polluted unbelief,
and then exhale disobedience.
We want to do what we feel like doing,
when we felt like doing it.

It’s a wonder God didn’t lose loose the divine temper
and do away with the whole lot of us.

Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,
God embraces us.
God takes our sin-dead lives
and makes us alive in Christ.
Saving is all God’s idea, and all Divine work.
All we do is trust.
We neither make nor save ourselves.
God does both the making and saving.
Thanks be to God!