O Lord, I Am the Straying Sheep, You Are the Shepherd

A Lutheran prayer to the Good Shepherd:

O God, these are your words: There is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not repent. All the righteous and the angels will crush sin under their feet and will cover it. O my God, I feel my sins and am judged already. I am greatly in need of a shepherd to seek me. For this reason I rely completely on the gospel. O Lord, I know that I am a straying sheep and that you are the Shepherd and the One who seeks the lost. I want to hold to this assurance. In the mirror of your law I see that I am a scarred and lost sinner. Save me, O God, for the sake of your only begotten Son. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 72.