40|50 Project: 40 Days To Heal A Nation’s Racial DivideSample

Week 3: Family & Justice

Day 16: Who’s Responsible?

“I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.” Nehemiah 1:6

Repentance precedes reconciliation, but who needs to repent? Who is responsible for racism in our nation? If I, personally, did not participate in chattel slavery, owning enslaved people forever as property and automatically enslaving their children, why am I expected to repent for something I did not do? 

National repentance is hard to grasp when our core values are independence, individualism, personal control, self-reliance, self-help, competition and free enterprise, all of which are woven into our country’s DNA. But when God births and shapes His people into a nation and gives them laws through Moses, He holds children responsible for the sins of their fathers and grandfathers going back several generations (Exodus 34:6-9). In God’s economy, we represent our entire family. Remember Achan? (Joshua 7). 

Nehemiah understands this and fasts, prays and repents on behalf of his nation, family and self when he hears of his country’s despair. Let us do the same. In addition to our personal sin, let us repent for the sins of our families and nations. 

PRAYER

Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps Your covenant of love with those who love You and keep Your commandments, 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 ________. I confess the sins our people, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against You. Please forgive us, in Jesus’s Name, Amen.