You are a god of grace, a god of faithfulness, a god of mercy. You are the god who has justified us, who has made peace with us, the god who gives us hope. 

Forgive us when we sin. Forgive us when we seek our hope in someone other than you, when we seek hope in family or money or jobs or politics or any of a hundred other things that we can pin our hopes to. 

Forgive us when we act in unbelief, when we get angry or anxious or when we despair of our circumstances or become discontent with what you have provided.  

Forgive our unfaithfulness, when we pursue other loves, when we doubt your love, when we seek our own desires instead of yours. 

And we know that you will forgive. When we confess our sin, we know that you are faithful and just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  

And when we confess our sin, we also have hope – the hope of forgiveness, the hope of grace, the hope of your word, a hope that is laid up for us in heaven. 

We have the hope of Christ found in his perfect life, his perfect sacrifice, his resurrection from the dead. Because of his sacrifice, we have the hope of forgiveness. Because of his perfect life, we have the hope of a righteousness attributed to us that makes us acceptable in your sight.  

We have the hope of your grace, your unending/unchanging grace. When you extended grace to us who were your enemies, it was a grace that would never be taken back, a grace that will last forever, a grace that was confirmed in the life and death of Jesus Christ.  

And we have the hope of your promises that we find in your word. Your promise to provide a savior. Your promise to save us from all of our sin. Your promise to make us your children. You promise to always be our God.  

Remind us that you give us hope in our trials, in our tribulations. When we are tempted to turn away or tempted to despair, remind us of the hope that you find in you. 

You are our God of hope, the same God who gave hope to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Paul, Peter, John. The unchanging God, the faithful God, the gracious God.   

Amen.