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 do not want to perish quickly from the land that You have given to our fathers, and to us. We do not want to come under Your chastisement, but as our story unfolds it is starting to look more and more as though You are bringing heavy chastisements on our nation. It is apparent that Your anger is kindled against us, and we cry out to You, asking You to stay Your hand for the sake of Jesus Christ, Your only Son. We pray that You would enable us to intercede for this stiff-necked nation, and to do so in the name of Jesus. Accept our prayers, we ask.
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 that Your Church has drifted, and that the nation has drifted even further off because of this. We confess that Your hand is heavy upon Your covenant people. Restore us, we pray, so that we might be in a position to intercede for this reckless people.
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And so Father, we confess our own sins to You now—Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
God has indeed set a blessing before you, the blessing of forgiven sin. That blessing is before you in the gospel, which gospel you have believed. I therefore declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!