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, as we come before You to confess the sins of our nation, we know that there is no refuge from You except in You. We know that our nation, our leaders, our elected representatives, our unelected representatives who are entertainers and commentators, are virtually all unwilling to acknowledge You as the source of all forgiveness. We pray that as we take refuge in You, You would shower Your kindness upon us by causing our people to turn back to You en masse.
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 now that we have tended to stand alongside Your name instead of taking refuge in Your name. We confess that when we do this, over time we find ourselves farther and farther away from Your name. Forgive us this great sin, we pray, and hear us because we are confessing this sin in Your Son.
And so Father, we confess our individual sins to You—Selah . . . We do this in the holy name of Jesus, and amen.
Who can declare how good God has been to us? That goodness includes, right at the center, the forgiveness of all your sin. And so, on the basis of the gospel of grace, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!