Prayer of repentance
/The following is the Prayer of Repentance which was corporately prayed at the Day of Prayer held on Saturday 8th September, 2018.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for our Christian heritage from Patrick and the Celtic church until now. We thank You for our history as a ‘land of saints and scholars’, spreading the Gospel to the world. However, today we acknowledge that for many years the world has known our land as a place of hatred and bloodshed. Throughout our history the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, has been used to justify many things that have brought dishonour to You. Our bitter disputes and hard hearts have driven Your Kingdom from us and we have served the idols of national identity and tribal fears. We confess that we have taken Your Holy name in vain.
- Father, forgive us as we have sinned. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We gather together today to own our sins and the sins of our fathers which have stained our land. We are truly sorry and we earnestly repent. Please have mercy on us and forgive us for what we have done against You, what we have done to this land and what we have done to one another. Together we come to the foot of the cross declaring that only Jesus can take away our sins and heal our land.
- Father, forgive us as we have sinned. Lord, have mercy upon us.
We recognise that along with the heritage that we have received from You there are weeds and snares of compromise and untruth. We confess fear, mistrust, hatred, violence, negativity, judgementalism, entitlement and complacency. We confess that we have covenanted against one another through ungodly blood covenants and oaths that have set us at odds with one another. We plead the blood of Christ’s New Covenant to release us from all unhealthy bondages of culture, wrong covenants and the unhelpful mindsets of our history, and bring us into the righteousness, peace and joy of the kingdom of God.
- Father, forgive us as we have sinned. Lord, have mercy upon us.
