Make Us Doers

Lord God, you have spoken to us, and we have heard more than we have done. We have looked into your word like a man looking into a mirror, and we have walked away and forgotten. Forgive us the sermons we admired and did not obey, the passages we underlined and never lived, the good intentions we let evaporate by Monday. We do not want to deceive ourselves any longer.

Plant your word in us deeply enough that it grows into something people can see. Give us the patience to look intently and the courage to continue. When we know what to do, make us quick to do it, and when we are tempted to file it away for later, remind us that later is where forgetting lives. Show us one thing today that we can do because you said it, and give us the grace to do it without fuss. We ask for the blessing you promised to those who act, and we ask it not for our credit but because we want to be your people in deed and not only in word. Amen.