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 over all creation, we look to You as the God of all grace. We acknowledge that the sins of our nation have been like scarlet, and that instead of repenting of them, we persist in them, and generate excuses for them. As Your people in this nation, we acknowledge that it would be just if You destroyed us all, and we confess that we could not defend ourselves with any appeal to justice. We acknowledge that our only appeal must be an appeal for mercy, and to have that mercy, we must repent. And so, Father, on behalf of our people, we pray for You to turn us. If You turn us, then we shall in fact be turned.
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 would be characterized as people of faith, and we know that we cannot have true faith without true repentance. We pray that You would bestow true repentance on Your Church so that we might model what that looks like to a watching world.
We now confess our individual sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the great name of Jesus Christ, and amen.
God loves to declare peace to His people. You have confessed your sins honestly, have you not? I therefore declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!