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, we rejoice in Your gracious provision of a high priest, one who knows and understands all our weaknesses. We confess that we are part of a hard-hearted nation, one that does not want to confess any want, or any weakness, and thus does not see the need for this great high priest. Father, we confess, on behalf of our people, this sin of ingratitude, and we ask You to reckon it as among our weaknesses, and we plead with You to make provision for it. We ask You now to shower the kindness of Your forgiveness upon our nation.
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. Father, we confess to You that we have neglected the discipline of true confession, and we pray that our appeals to Christ as our high priest would be used by You to show those outside what genuine confession of sin looks like.
And Father, we now confess individual sin to You—Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
If you listen to God, you will dwell in safety and security. So listen to Him now, as His gospel declares, and I, as a delegated minister of that gospel repeat—your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!