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.
When we confess our sins, Father, one of our problems as a nation is that we are so far lapsed into our own conceits that we do not even know how to confess our sins
rightly. We do not know where to begin. Father, we are a people shaped by Your Spirit, and we ask You to teach our nation how to confess by having Your people confess sin accurately and heartily. Father, we do not want to point an accusing finger, the way the devil does, but would rather identify with our nation in its sin, so that we might be used to show the way out.
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. And so, Father, we confess that we have been unwilling to take responsibility for things that we did not do, and in this unwillingness, we show that we are not willing to extend to others what Jesus gave to us. Please forgive us this sin, we pray.
And Father, we now confess any individual sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, and amen.
God hears you when you come in the name of Jesus. You have confessed honestly, and so I declare that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!