Father, we ask You to forgive our trespasses, and we ask You to convict our nation of those trespasses so that we might confess them fully and heartily. We confess on behalf of our people that we have assumed that a bad memory is the same thing as a clean conscience, and that a callused conscience is the same as a tender one. Forgive us for taking Your kindness to us for granted.
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.
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We ask You also to make us mindful of how our behavior in the Church has presented a stumbling block to our nation, teaching and modeling for them how Your grace can be twisted into a license for sin. We confess that, as Your people who are called by Your name.
And Father, we confess our individual sins to You now—and Selah . . . We do this in the good name of Jesus Christ, and amen.
You have confessed your sins and you have forgiven those who have wronged you. On the basis of God’s wonderful grace, I now declare that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!