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 God, we confess that we belong to a nation that has come to believe that its backslidings and apostasies are somehow special, or enlightened, or unique. We are
a people given over to self-flattery, and we even flatter ourselves when it comes to our sins. Father, we pray that You would use our confession here today, and the rest of our worship, as instruments in Your hand to bring us to our senses and to our knees.
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 we have not been shaped by the stories of our people that Your Spirit has given to us throughout the Scriptures. You have given us countless examples of decline, repentance and renewal, and even when the troubles found in these stories fit us like a glove, we persist in thinking that our situation is not described by You. Forgive us for this sin, we pray, and help us to live out the gospel in the presence of a wayward generation.
And Father, we take this moment to confess our own individual sins to You now—Selah . . . We do this in the great and strong name of Jesus our Savior, and amen.
Receiving you in this way is something that God delights to do. Because you have confessed your sin, I declare on the basis of the gospel that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!