Counting Our Blessings: A Prayer about the Fall of Man
Detail of Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Masaccio Cappella Brancacci (1401-1428); from Wikimedia Commons, {{PD-US}}.
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This is the sixth installment in a series of prayers based on the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647). To learn more about the history of the Westminster Standards, please click here.
The Westminster Confession of Faith—Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment Thereof
Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned, in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin, God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. — Westminster Confession of Faith 6.1-2
You do all things well.
Father in heaven,
I praise you for your wisdom and power. You do all things well. I submit to you and admit that I don’t understand much of your plan, but I know that you have one and it is good. Father, one part of your plan that is particularly hard to understand is Adam and Eve’s first temptation and sin, eating the forbidden fruit. This first sin destroyed the perfection of your creation.
You had the highest purpose through the fall of man, namely, to glorify yourself.
Your Word reveals that you were pleased to permit this horrible deed because you had the highest purpose through it, namely, to glorify yourself. Your word tells me that you consigned all to disobedience through the fall so that you might have mercy on all through your Son (Rom. 11:32). And you have shown great mercy, to your great glory! Your use of the worst of evil for the greatest good astounds me.
Please encourage me to trust you more in the times I don’t understand.
Sometimes I look at particular events unfold, and I am left bewildered. I cannot see any good. Yet, I still praise you with the apostle Paul, “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33). Please encourage me to trust you more in the times I don’t understand. If you can use problems as great as the fall for your glory, you can certainly use every hardship in my life, from the smaller mishaps to the greater tragedies. What comfort you give in revealing this to me. Father, I regret my past sins and fear my future ones; yet, I do not despair. For I know that in your matchless power and wisdom, you even use them for my good and your glory too. I bless your name for this great gift.
Please help me to better grasp the seriousness of my sin and of the fall.
Father, your plan of redemption is no small task. By this first sin Adam and Eve fell from their original righteousness and communion with you, and so they became dead in sin and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body. I confess that sometimes I put my hope in rose-colored glasses, as if a mere positive perspective could fix these problems. How naïve of me! Forgive me for the times I oversimplify my assessment of the human predicament and underestimate our need for your grace and salvation. Please help me to better grasp the seriousness of my sin and of the fall, so that I might more deeply appreciate what you have done and are doing for me—and for all creation.
Forgive me for my narrow-mindedness and selfish attitude.
I confess that sometimes I envy other people’s lives for they appear relatively unscathed by the fall. I find myself deceived, thinking they don’t really need you. I indulge myself in pity, thinking, “They have it so easy; if only that were my life...” Forgive me for this narrow-minded and selfish attitude. Your word says that all have sinned and fall short of your glory. Even the people who seem to be “living the dream” face your curse and wrath apart from Christ. But for we who have Christ, what more do we need? You portion out to us exactly what we need to leave this broken, fallen state behind forever and one day enter everlasting paradise. There is no other journey I want to be on, no other destiny for me to desire, and no other person but Christ who can bring me there.
Even those who I think have everything in this world desperately need Christ.
Please help me to be content with the course you have laid out for me through this fallen world and not distracted by the pleasures my neighbors are experiencing now. When I see my neighbors prospering, help me to point them to you. Even those who I think have everything in this world desperately need Christ. Your word reminds me of the truth that I tend to cover up, that apart from Christ, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). May this sobering reality help me be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks me for a reason for the hope that is in me (1 Pet. 3:15).
In your glorious plan, even my sin-stained life can point to you, Holy God.
Father, sometimes when I see my sin, I feel too discouraged to think that I could ever be a legitimate witness you. I think my testimony is ruined irreparably. I feel like giving up on seeking the lost, at least until I look better. How could my sin-stained life point to you, the holy God? But with you, nothing is impossible. You came not for the healthy, but for the sick; not for the righteous, but for sinners. You have a plan for your glory that includes even the fall. Somehow you can use me and other Christians amidst our sin to draw more sinners to yourself. Please keep me from sin! Help me to work out my salvation in fear and trembling. But when I do sin, please use it to convince other sinners that they too are welcome to come to you for salvation through Christ.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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