Prayer of Repentance [Jer. 11-12]

Father we know You are both omnipotent and righteous. You always do what is right whereas our inclination is to do what is wrong. You have been gracious to speak to us through the holy scriptures, the prophets, the Spirit and Your Son but we have not listened with respect and we have not obeyed Your instructions. Like ancient Israel, we have stubborn and evil hearts that are set on doing what we want. We are driven by our desires instead of Your decrees. Like Israel of old, we are a nation that worships idols. We have as many idols as we do States, possibly more. We worship the god of sports, entertainment, success, wealth, sex, self-will and I’m sure You can point out many more. Today, our Christian holy day, our sports arena’s will be packed with beer guzzling blasphemers who have not given one thought to Your Son and His sacrifice and then they will stand and sing “God Bless America”. Holy Father, we are all guilty, we stand and sing GOD BLESS AMERICA and our hands are dripping with the blood of the innocent unborn. Indeed do we crave Your blessings but we don’t want your instruction or intrusion into our twisted lives. Jesus is just a craved image on a stick, our blessed co-pilot, our spare tire…we’ll call on HIM when we need Him but at present we are enjoying our sin and rebellion.

 

Father You will never bless our sin and rebellion; You will never condone our evil ways and neither will You allow us to enjoy them. We are dinning on smoke and hot air and in the end we will be as empty as a drum. You have decreed that the way of the transgressor will be hard and so it shall be. We are traveling down a road that has a dead-end and it is the route we choose. We are headed for destruction and the closer we get, the faster we go. We could humble ourselves and beg for mercy but that would require repentance and not even those who attend worship today will repent, let alone the masses that will be entertaining themselves elsewhere. You have Your ways Father: You can humble us. You can allow disaster, drought, foreign nations, famine, disease and a multitude of other things to bring us to our knees. We do acknowledge that it is very foolish for us not to humble ourselves beneath Your mighty hand.

 

Father, You know our hearts and minds: we cannot hide anything from You. You see all our sin and shame whereas we only see a part. In Jesus name, grant us the spirit of repentance. We do wonder in our minds just how long American can survive without turning back to You in sorrow and repentance. Father please have mercy on America and send us REVIVAL and SPIRITUAL REFORMATION. In the perfect name of Jesus we pray. Amen!

 

Prayer of Repentance and Contrition

LORD God almighty, we know that you have the power to save–You are not impotent. We know that you can hear us when we pray. Our problem is not that  you cannot hear or save us; our problem is our sin. We growl like an angry bear and moan like a sick dove but we are our own worse enemy. It is our sins that have separated us. Our hands are covered with the blood of the innocent unborn. We not only tell lies, we teach them in our class rooms of higher education. We have become totally untrustworthy, we cannot be trusted. We create chaos, we produce pain, we hatch evil, run to evil and do evil. Our sin is causing massive destruction to our culture and country but we don’t seem to care. We are destroying the future of our children and our children’s children. We do not know the way of peace and we refuse to acknowledge it’s Prince. Justice stands at a distance–truth has fallen like a soldier in battle–Goodness is not recognized or appreciated. We hope for light but all we see is more darkness. Our own sins testify against us. We know we are guilty and we know that we have sinned. The only plea that we can make is for MERCY. LORD God have mercy on us; forgive our sins and heal our land. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!

 

Prayer of Confession [Sins of the Nation]

Based on Psalm 106 and Isaiah 26

We praise You LORD! We offer thanks to YOU, the Eternal One because You are good. We praise You for Your unconditional and infinite love; a love founded on Your character and capable of overcoming our sin and shame. Father, no one can describe how great You are–no one can praise You enough. Father we have sinned just like the ancient Israelites. They did nothing that we have not done. You saved them from the powerful Pharaoh and delivered from death through the Red Sea and within three days they were complaining. They were unthankful and selfish. They made an idol our of metal that looked like an ox and bowed down to it, giving this god of gold praise that belonged to You. They refused to follow Moses into the promise land and then when they did go in, the did the opposite of what you instructed: they mixed with the pagans and began to worship their gods of wood, stone and metal. They made sacrifices to demons and even burned their children in the fires of Molech and Chemosh. They killed their innocent sons and daughters.

 

Father we were given the greatest nation in history. We were founded on the principles of Your word. Our founding fathers had great respect for You but now we have taken the mention of Your name out of our history books. We have dismissed you from courts and classrooms. Where there was once prayer and bible reading in our schools, we now have violence and drugs and it is all our doing. We are sacrificing our children to the gods of academics, sports and success. Instead of teaching them to love You with all their heart, we teach them to love the world and the things that are in it and we do so by our own example. We have polluted the land with the blood of innocent babies but we know that Isaiah was inspired by Your Spirit when he said, “The day is coming when the earth will reveal the blood spilt on it. It will no longer cover the evidence of those who committed murder. Father we are swimming in a sea of sin and guilt with pride strapped on our backs, with each stroke, the weight of our pride carries us deeper. Day by day, we can feel ourselves sinking lower and lower into this cesspool of sin and rebellion. Father, our only hope is Jesus. We may not deserve revival but we need it, desperately. Have mercy on us O God and send REVIVAL and REFORMATION. In Jesus name we pray. Amen!