Confession 2.6 | ESV
We must lament and confess our omissions of duty, our neglect of it and triflings in it; and that we have done so little since we came into the world of the great work we were sent into the world about, so very little to answer the end of our creation or of our redemption, of our birth and of our baptism; and that we have profited no more by the means of grace.
I have been as a fig tree planted in the vineyard, and you have come many years seeking fruit from me but have found none; and therefore I might justly be cut down and thrown into the fire for using up the ground: Luke 13:6-7(ESV) You have come looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes; Isaiah 5:4(ESV) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit to myself. Hosea 10:1(ESV)
I have known the right thing to do, but have failed to do it. James 4:17(ESV) I have hid my Master’s money, Matthew 25:18(ESV) and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and slothful servant. Matthew 25:26(ESV)
I have been an unfaithful steward who has wasted my Lord’s possessions; Luke 16:1(ESV) for one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes 9:18(ESV)
Often there has been money in my hand to buy wisdom, yet I have had no sense to; Proverbs 17:16(ESV) or like the fool my heart has been inclined to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2(ESV)
My youth and dawn of life were vanity, Ecclesiastes 11:10(ESV) and I have brought my years to an end like a sigh. Psalm 90:9(ESV)
I have not known or improved the day of my visitation; Luke 19:44(ESV) have not prepared bread in summer nor gathered food in harvest, though I have had chiefs, officers, and rulers. Proverbs 6:7-8(ESV)
I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(ESV) and though by this time I ought to be a teacher of others, I am yet to learn the basic principles of the oracles of God: I have need of milk, and cannot bear solid food. Hebrews 5:12(ESV)
I have done away with the fear of God and hindered meditation before God; Job 15:4(ESV) I have not called upon your name, nor roused myself to take hold of you. Isaiah 64:7(ESV)
I have come to you as your people come, and have sat before you as your people sit, and have heard what you have said, when my heart at the same time has been set after gain. Ezekiel 33:31(ESV) And thus have I brought the torn and the lame and the sick for sacrifice; have presented to my God that which I would not have presented to my governor; Malachi 1:8(ESV) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord what is blemished, when I had in my flock a male. Malachi 1:14(ESV)
