| Greetings!
Obstacles to the Gospel - A prayer of repentance for suppressing one culture and exalting another.
"Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized-whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ-but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view."
(1 Corinthians 9:19-23, The Message)
Lord God, we acknowledge that you have created all peoples in your image, to reflect your glory. With you, there is no favoritism and you love every person under heaven.
There have been times in history where this has not been the case in the High Places. Some have come to rob the resources of the land and suppress the people, denying them dignity and justice. They have crushed the glory of God in these people in order to exalt their own culture and ideals.
Jesus, we ask for your forgiveness and cleansing where this has happened. We ask that you would remove the offense that colonialism has caused throughout history, and may only the positive contributions remain. We renounce pride, arrogance, and greed that have been inflicted on these people groups from ages past, up until the present time. We ask that you would release healing and redemption, and that you would bring your Kingdom culture within every community so that they can experience true freedom in Christ.
For every foreign missionary that visits these places, we ask that you would give them the grace that the Apostle Paul had, that they would "become all things to all people, through all possible means, that some would be saved."
We thank you for what you will accomplish in the High Places through repentance, humility, forgiveness, and reconciliation with the Father. In Jesus' name, amen.
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