You have punished us less that we deserve

“And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;” - Ezra 9v13


Ezra’s prayer of confession is one that we would all do well to emulate. He brings his confession to God with weeping and absolute supplication. There was no excuse, no allowance, and no passing the buck. He called sin sin and realised presented it to God as such. He placed himself and the nation at the grace and mercy of God. He acknowledged that God had punished them less than their sins deserved. At the end of his prayer all he could do was to stand before God and depend on Him.

Do we see sin like Ezra did? I find it way to easy to make excuses for my sins. There seems to always be reason why I do what I do. There is no excuse for sin. Only when we have a proper view of how bad sin is and how holy God is can we take a proper attitude toward our sin.

May we never get caught in the trap of making excuses for our sin. There are none.