Transgressed teachings.
Overstepped decrees.
Forgotten the covenant.
Therefore the earth and it's peoples are judged.
Disregarded taught wisdom.
Disobeyed laws outright or through manipulation, both the people and corrupt judges, perhaps to include lawmakers.
Forgotten to Whom we belong and His promises to us. This seems to be the core from which all else sprouts. We forget. How quickly we forget, I forget. One brief success, a blessing from the Lord, and I remember "what my skills and brains just accomplished... How well I did... How I finally got what I deserved... Man! Am I good or what??!!".
I continually forget Him, my Lord, my Creator.
I violate wise teachings that I learn. I am a fool.
I overstep laws and decrees. I am a scofflaw and criminal, perhaps unindicted, but one nonetheless.
I forget my God and my King. I am an ingrate. I am of poor character. I am selfish. I am in danger and imperiled. I am judged.
"Yet again, dear Lord. Yet again. I cry out to You, yet again. Do the echoes of my oft-repeated supplications and penitence irritate and anger You, Lord? When I ask, Lord, do I mock Your grace, limitless grace tempered only by Your judgment when You render it? Is this cry, this prayer, wrong in Your eyes, Lord?
"Again. Again. Never ceasing. Always asking and beseeching.
"Am I honoring You by returning to You? Is that simple return to You pleasing? My daily failings brought to You with cries for more mercy, more grace. Are those offerings You seek? Certainly not all, but perhaps 'in remembrance of' You? Is this my act of remembering Your covenant with us?
"Thank You, dear Father! Let me give greater gifts of obedience, hard obedience, costly obedience to You. Me, whom am unable to even 'control my vessel', I thirst to bring You greater gifts than solitary crew out for forgiveness... again. You can enable me, Lord, empower me, drive and direct me! If I yield. If I trust.
"To trust You, Lord! My desire. To trust You. To see You when You are not visible to the eye. To know You, not as the unknowable, but as my intimate Friend. One Who is hard to know because I cannot see You with my eyes, talk in voices I cannot hear, touch You with hands that do not feel. Yet, my faith tells me, Your word shows me, my cries out feel You. Not like the 'my' parts should. Will You accept my small 'my' parts, meager as they are?
"Let me never forget, or long forget, Your covenant with us, especially with me so I do not roll my indifference and forgetfulness into corporate penitence thereby sidestepping my own personal cost.
"Let my remembrance of Your covenant lead me to heed wisdom and to be open to more teaching of it and to make it part of me and what I do. Let me be discerning to look for it from anywhere and anyone, even from those who I unfairly and sinfully despise because of my pride.
"When I see laws I do not respect or just do not want to follow, show me and remind me, Lord, how I am under authority. Even authority I do not respect is still authority to which I must submit. I have failed here too many times and been an offense. Let me not forget.
"Turn my heart, desperate as though it is, to You. It is too heavy for me to turn. My efforts are too weak, my back is too feeble. I cannot. But through me, You can. You. You. You. You.
"It is You and about You. Not me, yet even in my cruel heart through this plea to You, I hear echoes again, how I resent that it is not about me in even a small part. Forgive my sinful prayers. How wicked I am. You. It is You. Let me revel in You, that it is only You.
"My God and my King! Tower over me. Let me be in Your shadow, the shadow of Your wings. Let me lose myself... my me... in You. Totally. Immersed in the flood of You. Carried out with the tide of You. End my struggles against Your flow. All You. Your mercies abound. Your grace is complete. Your judgment is sure... You need not deliberate... as You are always right and true.
"Praise to the God of all creation! My King, my Friend! My Sovereign! Let my obedience to Your decrees and absorption of Your teachings and wisdom enable my continual remembrance of You and Your covenant. Let Your covenant bring me to Your wisdom and lawfulness. Let me praise the beauty of my God!"
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