Apart from God
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you” (Ps. 16:2).
It’s a simple, true statement. We have no good apart from God.
We have no good apart from God’s provision — every good and perfect gift comes down from him — the Father of lights. Take an inventory of every good thing that there is in the world, God is its ultimate source.
We have no good apart from God’s direction. We get our hands on something good (health, job, education, relationship). And it’s just like we can’t help but distort it, idolize it, make improper use of it. We need God’s direction to rightly receive and enjoy what is good.
We have no good apart from God, which means that if we do have any good, it is a grace. Good does not come into anyone’s life by accident, but by sovereign delivery, so that of each good thing we experience, we could say of it, ‘this, this right here, is a gift from my Father in Heaven.”
Brothers and sisters, God is our good, and we have no good apart from him. And it’s that apart which reminds us of our need to confess our sins.
Prayer of Confession
Father, so regularly we live massive portions of our lives, massive portions of our days, apart from you. Apart from worshiping you, praying to you, thinking about you. We want good, of course, we all want good. And yet, by nature, we go after it on our own, thinking to obtain and enjoy it on our own terms. It’s foolish. It’s sinful. And we’ve done it. And so it’s with this sin and the many others like it that we come before you now in this moment of silent confession.
