An awesome scene of national repentance transpired for Israel as recorded in the book of Nehemiah. For the first time since the days of Joshua, they gathered together by thousands. Men who represented their tribes stood at the gates and prayed, confessing the sins of their fathers and their own sins. They repented deeply. Repentance sets the moral stage for everything else to happen. In fact, without the prayer of repentance, the people would not understand their captivity, or why this event was sacred. Can you pray a Nehemiah prayer today?
God, forgive us who are elderly among us for all our sins. In our loneliness and isolation, we have forgotten your companionship. We worry because we’re scared of the future. We worry about insurance, Social Security and pensions so much that we fail to pray and trust you. Forgive us for paying more attention to ourselves than others. We need to reach out to others, to actively pray with others, to intercede for others, to sit down and counsel with others about your Word. We live too much in the past, forgetting that you are a God of the present. We base our relationship with you too much on what used to be instead of what is. Give us new strength to pray, to worship, to rejoice, to lead, to teach.
Forgive us who are in the prime of our lives. We are too driven by covetousness and greed. We neglect our families to make more money. We pay too much attention to accumulating things. Forgive us for being too tired to come to church, but never to go to work. Forgive us for criticizing, gossiping, lack of prayer, not reading the Word, and not living conscientiously. Forgive us for not tithing, for lack of compassion, for silence at wrongdoing, for failing to witness, for not doing your will, not teaching, not participating, not lifting others up, not submitting to spiritual authority. Help us to recommit ourselves to you, to remember why we’re saved and living for you in the first place. Help us to love you, our families, our brothers and sisters in the Lord like we should. Lift us up above cars, clothes, homes, gadgets and trinkets, to revere you.
Forgive us who are still young people. Forgive us for hurting other kids because we don’t like them, or we think they’re stupid. Forgive us for going along with the crowd, even when we know it’s wrong, because we want to fit in, for hate, spite, lying, and instigating trouble. Forgive us for using profanity and thinking it’s funny; for making lewd and destructive comments about others, for speaking against those you have set over us. Forgive us for piling on with insults until we drive people away. Forgive us for overlooking the weak, the hurting, the new kid, the scared, the timid, the shy, the less talented, those who aren’t as good looking as we are. Forgive us for making everyone believe that we’re ok when, underneath our exterior we know we’re not. Forgive us for being too intimidate to worship, thinking it’s not cool to love the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Help us to love you again. Help us to forgive each other. Erase the rage, the hatred, the arrogance, the pride, the attitudes.
Lord forgive us all for prejudice, pride, resentment, stinginess, carnality, bitterness, unruliness, lust, lasciviousness and wrongdoing. Forgive us for attitudes of superiority, for spiritual laziness, for walking too close to the world. Fill us with good things; love, joy, peace, faith, gentleness, goodness, meekness, longsuffering, temperance. Fill us up to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Electrify our worship services with powerful praise and exaltation of God. Let the love of God flow to a lost and dying world. Help us to reach neighborhoods with the good news. Help us to tear down the strongholds of Satan. Help us to share the wealth of the gospel to sinners. Help us to live in harmony, respect, love, forgiveness, truth. We can never be worthy to enter these gates in worship in your temple, but you make us worthy. Forgive us Lord!