God’s Grace in Confession: A Prayer Guide (Neh 9:12-25)

Moreover, you led them by day with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way in which they should go. You came down also upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and you made known your holy sabbath to them and gave them commandments and statutes and a law through your servant Moses. For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, and for their thirst you brought water for them out of the rock, and you told them to go in to possess the land that you swore to give them.

“But they and our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments; they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them. Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and gave them water for their thirst. Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, and allotted to them every corner, so they took possession of the land of King Sihon of Heshbon and the land of King Og of Bashan. You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had told their ancestors to enter and possess. So the descendants went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, to do with them as they pleased. And they captured fortress cities and a rich land, and took possession of houses filled with all sorts of goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they ate, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

Prayers of confession should be grounded in the character of God: creative, gracious, compassionate, and patient. Part three of this prayer of confession shows us how to build a prayer of confession that is deep, wide, and meaningful.

Background

The third part of this prayer continues praising God by reciting how God provided for the Israelites while they were wandering in the desert. Not only did he deliver them from Egypt, as described in part two of our study of this prayer, but he gave them food (manna), water, and shelter—often in miraculous ways.

How do the people respond? With selfishness, refusal to follow God’s directions, and stubbornness. At one point, they even told Moses that they were better off in slavery in Egypt! Worse still, they created an idol to worship and ascribed their delivery to a golden calf. God had freed them, protected them, fed them, and guided them for forty years. Despite their ungratefulness, he made them into a great nation of people, conquered lands for them, given them fertile soils, and made them successful, prosperous, and happy. All because God is good.

Meaning

This section continues describing the great graciousness of God but introduces the first element of why confession is necessary. Amid describing God’s protection for forty years in the wilderness, the prayer recalls how the people whined, complained, failed to follow God’s ways, and rebelled against Him. The reason for noting the unfaithfulness is not only to cite the need for confession, but also to show that despite that past rebellion, God continued to be gracious: he brought them into the Promised Land, helped them defeat their enemies, and made them prosperous.

The confession began with praise of who God is—his character and his great acts of creation and choosing of his people. It continues here with a recitation of his care, nurturing and protection. Then, despite the failure of people to follow Him, he still kept his promises to them and gave them great blessings. All of this is background to set up the need and purpose of the subsequent confession: begin with God, His power and majesty, his great acts in history, and his overwhelming graciousness and patience.

Application

As we have seen before in all these studies, the prayer types need not stand alone. Not only can they be used together in one prayer, but they can connect and interact with each other. Here, we see praise and thankfulness for God’s graciousness helps set the tone of the prayer for why we need to confess our wrongdoing (because he is gracious, and we rebel) and that He is the sort of God who has incredible patience (long-suffering).

For the moment, a prayer of confession need not end with you asking for anything. After all, confessing is just that: confession alone. A petition for forgiveness can come later, but there is nothing wrong with a mere prayer that tells God the facts.

Offer a prayer today in which you recite times when God has been gracious or generous to you, but you have not been grateful. You might begin the prayer with praising God as Creator, then for the things he has done for you, and then how you had acted ungratefully. Beyond that, tell Him how He has continued to be faithful even when you have not.

How does it feel to end a prayer there? We often end our prayers by asking God for something (or the entire prayer is only a petition). What is it like to just acknowledge God’s graciousness and then your own unfaithfulness, with no requests?