A prayer for forgiveness

Solomon built a temple in Israel--the first since the Tabernacle of Moses as Israel wandered in the wilderness.

Just like we do today, Solomon said a prayer of dedication when the temple was complete.  It's a beautiful prayer for forgiveness in case of the guaranteed eventuality that Israel sins.

The pattern is repeated several times throughout the prayer (1 Kings 8:28-50).  The pattern goes like this:

1. We'll probably sin.
2. We'll suffer for sin.
3. That will lead us to repentance.
4. Please forgive us when we come back.
5. We'll probably sin again.  Repeat steps 2-5.

33 ¶When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
35 ¶When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:
36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
37 ¶If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

The most fantastic thing about the Atonement is that it is infinite.  No matter how often we sin, whether we repeat the same one, or go through a series of them, forgiveness is available every time we repent.

Is there anything man can do to disqualify himself from the infinite nature of the atonement?  Yes.  Stop wanting it.  Stop trying.  Stop repenting.  Those three are all the same thing.

No matter how bad you think your sin is, the Lord's most favorite thing will be to forgive you of it when you repent.  Repentance is not a single event that you do when you get to the point that you're not going to sin anymore.  That never happens.  Repentance, and therefore the Lord's forgiveness, is a daily process of trying to do better.

Keep trying.