A Prayer for God's Mercy and Forgiveness

Father, I have run out of ways to make myself feel acceptable to You. I cannot earn my way back, cannot do enough good to outweigh what I have done. So I come the only way I can, empty-handed, asking for mercy.

I confess my failures plainly. I have wandered, I have justified, I have known better and chosen worse. I am not standing here pretending I deserve a kind answer.

But mercy is exactly what You offer to people like me. Not because we are good, but because You are. I throw myself on that mercy now, with nothing to bargain and nowhere else to go.

Your Word says Your mercies are new every morning, that Your faithfulness does not run dry no matter how often I return needing it again.

Be merciful to me. Wash what I cannot wash, forgive what I cannot fix, and let Your kindness do what my striving never could.

I stop trying to earn what You freely give. Thank You that Your heart toward me is mercy, not contempt. I receive it now, and I breathe again. Amen.