Confession, Repentance, And Promised Times Of Refreshing
Merciful Father,
You are Our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). Almighty God, we are in trouble, the United States, the world, and all nations and peoples of the world. We cry out to You for mercy in this day of profane evil, arrogance, and deception.
As Daniel prayed, confessing his own sin and that of his people Israel (Daniel 9:20), so each one of us pray and confess our own sin and that of our nation, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have acted wickedly and rebelled” (Daniel 9:4-5).
With heaviness of heart, we confess our lack of attention to what has been happening within our own country. Since the 1940’s our Supreme Court tilted further and further in the direction of keeping faith out of public life. Angry, activist atheists manifested Satan’s attacks against religious freedom. And the leftist FDR Supreme Court cravingly bit the forbidden fruit and rubber stamped each religious liberty case that, like a lamb led to the slaughter, stood before it.
And those of us who have flourished in the light of religious liberty, “like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so [we too] opened not [our] mouth[s]” (Isaiah 53:7). Where were we? Where were our Christian leaders? Where were our conservative leaders? Where are we now?
The first question You ever asked man was, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). Shouldn’t this divine query, that sits on the eternal precipice of paradise and hell, be a blazing red flare to us? To place a mark reaching heavenward; a place that compels an evaluation of where we are in relation to You; a place that guides us to You when we are wandering in darkness and confusion?
Merciful God, find us! “We have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for we have not forgotten Your commandments” (Psalm 119:176).
We confess being disobedient to Jesus’ repeated command to “Stay awake!” “For it was while the servants slept that the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat” (Matthew 13:25).
We confess being duped by the left’s lies regarding “separation of church and state” which was for them “separation of church from state”. Like the Israelites entering the Promised Land, we were too quick to trust the Gibeonites based on the falsified evidence of crumbly bread and burst wineskins (Joshua 9:3-15), an old cross in a park and an misused establishment clause. We confess that we should have sought Your counsel in the matter and conquered the land completely.
We confess failing to follow Jesus’ prudent dealing with people of questionable sincerity, “But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature. No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like” (John 2:24-25).
Merciful Father, we confess that we have acted in ignorance, as have our leaders (Acts 4:17).
Therefore, we repent and turn back to You that our sins may be wiped away. For You Yourself have promised, that repentance will be accompanied with times of refreshing from Your Presence—Jesus Christ, through Whom we obtain relief, the recovery of breath, and the restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21).
Sovereign Lord, accept our confessions and repentance. We turn back to You. Scripture promises, “Therefore, say to the people, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies’” (Zechariah 1:3). Yes, LORD, not “because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy” (Daniel 9:18) return to us.
How can we ever thank You for times of refreshing, revival, restoration, recovering our breath, obtaining relief, an “already but not yet” promise for those who have faith in Jesus Christ? Our paltry and feeble gratitude seems so inadequate for such immeasurable blessings, yet Scripture says, “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Your people” (Psalm 22:3). Father, we praise You with all we are, and thank You for times of refreshing that follow our sincere confession and repentance.
Lord, help us to examine our hearts amid the chaos and weigh our own contributions to the chaos, that is, ways that we did not “Seek first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). For Jesus tells us plainly that when our priorities are right, You handle everything else.
Grant us spiritual strength as the apostle Paul prayed:
…that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19
Send spiritual revival throughout the United States, that our nation may be one that praises You, brings glory to Your Name, and lifts up Jesus Christ.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever (Ephesians 3:20-21).
By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we pray in the Name of Jesus, Amen.
