“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken your first love.”

I confess to my Lord and God, that in my spiritual struggles and material temptations, I have allowed my heart to go every which way but to Him, and I have failed to love the Lord with all my heart and mind and soul. I have struggled with stress and angst and brokenheartedness, and through it all, though I have filled my mind with head-knowledge of the things of God, I have yet neglected to nurture my relationship with Him. I am humbled, and I repent of my wayward spirit.

I love you, Lord, my first love, You who loved me before I was born. Mend me, broken man that I am, and make me Yours. Teach me Your ways that I may walk in them, that I may praise and glorify You in all things. Strengthen my faith, fill me with Your Spirit, nourish me with your Word. Then and only then, in Your love, shall I know true and lasting peace.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.