Father over all nations, we confess that it too easy for us to see everything from our own vantage, and to do so in a way that justifies ourselves. Together with many men, we flatter ourselves and say that as a nation we have no sin. We confess this to you. We also have a tendency to reject Your Word in the opposite way, by claiming that we have all sin, and that other nations and people don’t. We confess the twisted and distorted view that America is the focus of evil in the world. We confess ourselves sinners, like all men, but we do not locate the antithesis between righteousness and unrighteousness in terms of nations. Forgive us our confusions, we pray.
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 the Church has not thought of herself the way the Scriptures describe us. We confess that we get too easily caught up in the currents of culture and politics, with out identity shaped by forces that are not in accordance with the work of Your Holy Spirit. Help us to see ourselves as Christians in the first instance, and as Christians who understand obedience in the particular stations assigned to us in this nation.
Father, we confess our own sins to You now—and Selah . . . We pray this in the wonderful name of Jesus, and amen.
You have redemption through His blood. Christ shed it, the Scriptures promise it, the Spirit applies it, and I declare it. As a minister of the gospel, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Thanks be to God.
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