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, we would love to be able to ask You to look upon us as an upright nation. But we know that our sins are scarlet, and that this is not possible unless Your Spirit moves in a remarkable way across our nation. And so, Father, we cry out to You, confessing the sins of our people—we have rejected Your authority, we have shed innocent blood, we have lusted after Mammon. On top of all this, we have flattered ourselves, pretending to be good, wise, and humble. We confess all this to You, Father, on behalf of our nation.
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 acknowledge that we have too often been caught up in this self-flattery ourselves. We have pretended that our tasks are other than what You have assigned, and we have pretended that we were fulfilling them. Father, grant Your Church true humility and right confession so that we might show the nation what it looks like.
We now confess our private sins to You—and Selah . . . We do this in the strong name of Jesus, amen.
God’s countenance beholds the upright, and because You have confessed your sins honestly and without a lying heart, He has heard you. On this basis, and because of the truth of the gospel, I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ.
Congregation: Thanks be to God!