Prepare Your Heart, Lift Up Your Hands

“If only you would prepare your heart
    and lift up your hands to him in prayer!
Get rid of your sins,
    and leave all iniquity behind you.
Then your face will brighten with innocence.
    You will be strong and free of fear.
You will forget your misery;
    it will be like water flowing away.”

—Job 11:13-16 (NLT)

Heavenly Father,

Show me my heart that I might prepare it to come before You—repenting of all my sin and iniquity—so that I can freely lift my hands to You in prayer without fear.

Help me to rid myself of the sin that separates me from You, by giving me the strength to repent—to turn my back on my sin and leave it behind—as I choose to go in a new direction, to follow a better path.

For then You will cause my face to brighten as the darkness of my sin falls away and the innocence of holiness shines forth from within me.

You will cause me to become strong and, in the strength You give, I will have no need to fear—but will live in joy and peace.

And I will no longer carry the misery that my sin once brought to me—but only remember it like water flowing away from me.

Show me my heart that I might prepare it to come before You—repenting of all my sin and iniquity—so that I can freely lift my hands to You in prayer without fear.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.