O Lord, Creator of all things, we need You desperately.
You are most excellent in all Your ways.
You knew us before the foundation of the world and saw our paths from a distance.
My God, there is no god but You.
We can do nothing apart from You.
We trust in You.
Our community, our region, our nation, and our world needs You.
All the seeds of sinful destruction we planted are coming back to devour us.
We have become our own worst enemy.
We spurn Your blessings.
We seek our pleasure above You.
We boast when we should weep.
We do what is right in our eyes, forsaking You.
We pervert justice.
We show partiality.
We regard wealth, status, class, skin tone, and occupation—temporary things that end at the grave.
We call wrong, “right” and right, “wrong.”
We murder the innocent for convenience.
We abandon family for pleasure.
We distort marriage and Your design.
We think ourselves wise but have become fools.
We love violence.
We love destruction.
We love the impure, perverse, and sexually immoral.
We love ourselves.
We hold to our tribes at the expense of goodness and truth.
We lie to avoid consequence.
We lie and play the hypocrite.
We steal from another under the guise of equity and justice.
We steal and lie for selfish gain.
We refuse to wake up but think we are awake.
We divide.
We hate.
We murder.
We are cruel in thought and action but applaud such authenticity.
We trust government, education, and the innate strength of man, though all of these fail us.
We think our politics will save.
We think our humanitarian efforts will save.
We think goodness is enough.
We think ourselves better than we are.
We ignore the elderly.
We ignore the weak.
We ignore the poor.
We have become barbaric in our ways but think ourselves civil.
We esteem the past, which is only wickedness from a different vantage.
We esteem the future as though destruction does not await us.
Our ways will be our undoing.
There is nothing we can say, except we express repentance.
There is nothing we can do, except we amend our ways.
There is nowhere we can turn, except we turn to You.
Grant, by Your grace, repentance; turn us around.
Give us weeping instead of arrogance.
Give us sorrow for sins.
Give us mercy instead of judgment.
Give us life rather than death, a death which we have all earned.
Give us truth in place of lies.
Give us liberty in place of chains.
Give us You over all that we seek.
Give us Your Son, Jesus, or all hope is lost.
Lord, we need You, desperately.
In His name, His precious name, we pray,
Amen.