Assurance, drawn from Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity 

And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? 

He does not retain His anger forever, 

Because He delights in unchanging love.

19 He will again have compassion on us; 

He will tread our iniquities under foot. 

Yes, You will cast all their sins 

Into the depths of the sea. 

Father,  
We have searched high and low through history, through mythology, through morality and philosophy, personality and celebrity, community, art, entertainment, and science. We have inquired within ourselves and outside of ourselves, and sought out judges, kings, prophets, and priests. We have sat among those who do benevolently, and those who act wickedly, and gazed upon the notorious and the insignificant. We have pursued pleasures and materialism and noteworthiness and knowledge, and set up idols in every place. In all our inquiry and idolatry, we must humble ourselves and affirm in brokenness that outside of you there is none other who pardons iniquity and who passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession.

All that is in the world are broken promises, unmet expectations, generational grudges, false love, pursuit of revenge, and the deep, deep draughts of bitterness and despair in death. 

Only you, Father, delight in unchanging love, and in the face of your unimpeachable holiness, you poured out your wrath upon your holy Lamb so that your sheep might know that love and be redeemed.

Only you, Father, have given us the promise that you will have compassion on us and will tread our iniquities under foot and cast all our sins into the depth of the sea, and only you have brought the fulfillment of that promise through Christ, who bore the full penalty of your holy justice and rose again, and thereby grants us the privilege of being accepted by you, in Him.

Grant us the assurance of your gracious salvation today, Father. In our worship, in our fellowship, in our attending to the preaching of your Word, we ask that by your Spirit we would be disrobed of the tattered and feeble assurances of our legalism, our self-righteousness, and our moral reformations. May we, in repentance and faith, be dressed sumptuously in the righteousness of Christ, and look to you alone for the grace and hope and assurance that comes from your salvation accomplished and applied.

Amen.