Today I recorded a special episode of the Pray Every Day show in light of what’s been happening around our nation and the world. Normally I pray spontaneously, but today I crafted this prayer because I realize just how important words can be. I hope you hear my heart in this prayer. I hope you join me as I pray it. The way toward growth comes in the soil of humility.

A Prayer of Repentance

Lord Jesus, my heart is heavy.

And I believe yours is too.

We, your people, have forgotten how to love. We have allowed externals to inform our words and actions toward others. We have created labels that mean IN or OUT. We have differentiated between people, building hierarchies when the kingdom of God flattens them gloriously.

At the foot of the cross, we all exist in repentance, in dust and ashes, all needing a savior. We sing the words of the Apostle Paul, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Sadly, we have memorized this verse, but so often, we live as if it were not true.

Forgive us. Forgive me.

Like Nehemiah, I pray on behalf of our nation and this world for the racist sins tolerated, celebrated, enacted, denied, and buried.

Alongside Nehemiah, I pray, “Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you” (Nehemiah 1:6-7).

Because, Lord, when we hate another, we are an affront to you. Hatred and division does not represent your heart. As I remember your time on earth, Jesus, I see a savior with arms wide open, pursuing the wandering one, tearing down barriers, creating a new community made of people who used to call each other enemies.

I am reminded of 1 John 4:20 that so pointedly says, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

Jesus, we have preferred hatred to reconciliation. We have failed to love. But not only that, we have bought into the lie that some human beings are without worth or less worthy, or that we are better somehow. What better tool for Satan to use than inciting racist rhetoric and actions in order to destroy your multi-ethic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural church from the inside. The enemy of our souls is a thief, a liar, and his mission is to steal, kill, and destroy us. We have believed his whispers to our peril and to the peril of others. Forgive us for justifying our hatred for human beings who bear the indelible stamp of you, Almighty God.

I repent and ask your forgiveness for the DNA of slavery that inaugurated this nation—one that has had devastating ramifications for so many people today. I am sorry for the hatred, the bloodshed of the innocent, and the satanic idea that one skin color is superior to another. I ache inside for the injustices big and small, as I see them as a violation of the Lord’s Prayer where we ask that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

When I jump to the New Heavens and the New Earth, I see the beauty of a reconciled humanity to yourself. No more tears. No more aches. No more injustice. And gathering together, we represent the fullness of the body of Christ—every tribe, tongue, and nation, prostrate before you, the Worthy One who paid the price for us all.