Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all.
Father, as a nation we have despised the relationships that You have given to us. We have not kept our marriage vows, and have even attempted to redefine what marriage is. We have not honored father and mother, and we have not respected the frame of our children.
Forgive us for taking our vows and covenant promises lightly. Forgive us for the breakdown in family life—that which You gave to be an enormous blessing, we have despised and treated with contempt.
We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual.
Within the Church, we confess that we have imitated the world too much, and set a model for the world too little. Father, forgive us for trying to defend the family in the legislature instead of defending it first in our homes and in the pulpit. Father, we confess that the impotence of the church’s witness cannot be corrected by the legislature, and that we can only expect the legislature to be the place where savorless salt is trampled upon by sinful men. Forgive us for our impotence, we pray.
And Father, we confess our own particular sins to You here—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
You have confessed your sins. You have confessed them honestly, and without guile. God has accepted you in the sacrifice of Jesus, and on this basis, as a minister of this glorious gospel, I declare that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!