Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. Lord, we know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us oh God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen.
—Pastor Joe Wright, Kansas
On this Memorial Day, in the year 2021, let there be a time of confession of our national sins so that the ultimate sacrifice given by so many for God and country will not be in vain. American military personnel have always been men and women of prayer.
The Soldier’s Prayer
“O Eternal God, who by Thy unsearchable wisdom, by Thy Almighty power and secret providence, dost determine the issues of human counsels, the events of war and the return of victory and peace, let the light of Thy countenance, and the blessed influence of Thy mercy, be once more shed upon this afflicted land.
Pity the evils which we suffer under the power and tyranny of war, and although we acknowledge Thy justice in our sufferings and adore Thee in thy judgments, yet we beseech Thee to hearken to our prayers and provide a remedy for our calamities. Let not the defenders of a righteous cause go away ashamed, nor their counsels be bought to naught.
Look with compassion upon our infirmities and remember not our sins, but support us with Thy staff, lift us up with Thy hand, and refresh us with Thy presence. And if a threatening cloud should still overshadow us, illuminate our minds with divine truth that with the eye of faith and hope we may see beyond it; catching a glimpse of those mercies which in Thy secret providence and adorable wisdom Thou mayest still vouchsafe to Thy unworthy servants amidst the saddening scenes and hardships of war.
Give us grace and strength diligently to do our duty and cheerfully to submit to Thy will; and as we do put our whole trust and confidence in Thy mercy, and have laid up all our hopes in Thy bosom, let us never be put to shame or confusion before our enemies: but as Thine are the strength and the power, O Lord of Hosts, do Thou make bare Thy mighty arm and give us the victory. Place a guard of angels, O Lord, about the Commander-in-chief, and uphold him with the defense of Thy right hand, that no unhallowed arm may do him.”
