A Prayer of Confession

I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:
"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our rulers, our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame. O LORD, we and our rulers and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the LORD our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All of us have transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
Therefore judgments have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. All this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from us. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of your people. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your people bear your Name.”

No, I didn’t really write that. I am reading through Daniel and I read that a couple of days ago. When I read it I realized that in a lot of ways it fits God’s people now. I did change some of the wording, but it is mostly the text of Daniel 9:1-19. The part in bold especially stood out to me. We have no righteousness which demands God’s forgiveness, but He is merciful. I pray that Christians in America and all over the world would awake and return to God. No, not all Christians are rebelling against God. But many Christians, especially in America, have drifted away from living in accordance with what God desires. I believe that God is trying to get our attention through national disasters and through other things, because we tend to live as though we don’t need Him. We do desperately need God, and He is trying to remind us of that. I pray that we will listen to Him.