Please pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Iran who are imprisoned for their faith. A few years ago a man named Farshid, featured along with many others in the two-and-a-half minute video below, visited our EPM office. It was a privilege to meet him and the director of Elam Ministries and hear stories of what God is doing in Iran. It’s now heartbreaking to think of Farshid presently in prison, enduring much hardship, and separated from his dear family.
Those imprisoned normally experience the following conditions: solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, many hours of interrogation by different teams, loud speakers outside their cells constantly broadcasting religious teaching, threats of execution, harm to family members, pressure to recant their Christian faith, verbal insults, other forms of psychological torture, sometimes prolonged beatings, and denial of medical attention.
“Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.” Hebrews 13:3
In November 1960, six-year-old Ruby Nell Bridges got out of the U.S. Marshall’s car and walked the short distance to the school entrance, apparently oblivious to the adults who screamed obscenities at her along the walkway. As usual, her teacher watched from the window as the little African-American girl approached the school, but today, something was different—Ruby was talking as she walked. In the classroom Mrs. Henry said, “I saw your lips moving, but I couldn’t make out what you were saying to those people.” “I wasn’t talking to them,” Ruby explained, “I was praying for them.”1
Ruby was born in 1954, the year that the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision ( Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka )2 overturning its 1896 ruling, which sanctioned segregation ( Plessy v. Ferguson ).3 Ruling that all segregation was “inherently unequal,” the court ordered desegregation to be enforced with “all deliberate speed.”4
At the time of the decision, Ruby Bridges’ Louisiana was one of seventeen southern states that required segregation. Although the Orleans Parish School Board fought desegregation through the courts, it gave way when federal Judge Skelly Wright ordered that schools had to desegregate on November 14, 1960.5 In the spring of 1960, Ruby was among the black children tested in New Orleans to determine who would attend an integrated school. When she passed, her parents learned she would start first grade at William Frantz Public School. On November 14, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother to school. They explained that two marshals would walk in front of them and two behind, so they would be protected on both sides.6 It reminded Ruby of what her mother had told her about God—that He is always there to protect His people: “Remember, if you get afraid, say your prayers. You can pray to God anytime, anywhere. He will always hear you.”7
Every day, people yelled hate-filled abuse at Ruby. Once someone even displayed a black doll in a coffin. Civil unrest in the city grew. Her father lost his job. Her grandparents were told to leave the land they had sharecropped for 25 years. Yet, Ruby continued to attend school. She was encouraged by the help her family received, from both black and white members of society, not least from her white teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry, who dedicated herself to her only pupil.8 Yet above all, Ruby was strengthened to endure by praying on her way to school: “Prayer was my protection.” When asked what she had been praying, Ruby explained, “Usually I prayed in the car on the way to school, but that day I'd forgotten until I was in the crowd. Please be with me, I’d asked God, and be with those people too. Forgive them because they don't know what they’re doing.”9
Following the world’s example, Christians can fall into the trap of bitterness and depression over the real or perceived wrongs done them; a resentful, victim mindset can grip them. But the example of a child, Ruby Bridges, can help lead them to liberty, where prayer blocks murmuring, and forgiveness displaces resentment. Christians must never cease to fight social evil, but in the fray, they must never let the devil rob them of their joy in the Lord or poison their witness to His grace.
This article is indebted to Ruby Bridges’ account of these events. See Ruby Bridges, Ruby Bridges Foundation Website, www.rubybridges.org/story.htm (accessed March 11, 2004).
For further information, see Harvard Sitkoff, The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-1992, rev. edn. (NY: Hill & Wang, 1993 [1981]); William H Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America since World War II, 5th edn. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Oh Lord, I confess and weep over my omissions of duty, my neglect of it and trifling in it, and that I have done so little since I came into the world of the great work I was sent into the world about, so very little to answer the end of my creation or of my redemption, of my birth and of my baptism; and that I have profited no more by the means of grace. I have been as a fig tree planted in the vineyard, and you have come many years seeking fruit from me but have found none; and therefore I might justly be cut down and thrown into the fire Matthew 3:10(ESV) for using up the ground: Luke 13:6-7(ESV) - But Lord, You have exercised grace and patience!
You have come looking for grapes, but beheld wild grapes; Isaiah 5:4(ESV) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit to myself. Hosea 10:1(ESV), but again Lord, Your eyes were patient , look to that One Who came in my stead. Lord, I have time and again known the right thing to do, but have failed to do it. James 4:17(ESV) I have hid my Master’s money, so to speak, Matthew 25:18(ESV) and therefore, like the wicked and slothful servant deserve the doom of my Master. Matthew 25:26(ESV) but once again Lord, Your eyes are not on me, but on the crucified One. I have been an unfaithful steward who has wasted my Lord’s possessions; Luke 16:1(ESV) for as You Word says: "one sinner destroys much good". Ecclesiastes 9:18(ESV) Lord, often there has been money in my hand to buy wisdom, yet I have had no sense to, Proverbs 17:16(ESV) or like the fool my heart has been inclined to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2(ESV)
My youth and dawn of life were vanity, Ecclesiastes 11:10(ESV) and I have brought my years to an end like a sigh. Psalm 90:9(ESV) I have not known or improved the day of my visitation; Luke 19:44(ESV) I haven't prepared bread in summer nor gathered food in harvest, though I have given much... Proverbs 6:7-8(ESV) I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(ESV) Lord, I have much yet to learn the basic principles of the oracles of God: I have much need of milk, and there is much evidence that I cannot bear solid food. Hebrews 5:12(ESV)
Lord, It is frequently true that I have done away with the fear of God and hindered meditation before God; Job 15:4(ESV) I often do not called upon your name, or roused myself to take hold of you. Isaiah 64:7(ESV) To my shame I have come to you as your people come, and have sat before you as your people sit, and have heard what you have said, when my heart at the same time has been set after gain. Ezekiel 33:31(ESV) And thus have I brought the torn and the lame and the sick for sacrifice, have presented to my God that which I would not have presented to my governor; Malachi 1:8(ESV) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord what is blemished, when I had better in my flock. Malachi 1:14(ESV) But all of this Lord, all of it is under Your torn flesh and Your shed blood…
And thanks be to God, for apart from that truth there would be not hope, I would have not hope at all. How could I hope to make amends for even one offense, let alone for the enormity of all of my offense together? Oh Lord - thanks be to Your mercy and to Your grace - given before the world ever began...
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’ (Is 45:5-7).
O Lord - what glorious words - they are high and lifted up - how can we even begin to appreciate them? Surely Lord you do those things that we cannot and would not do ourselves! You made the earth, You created man on it. You—Your hands—stretched out the heavens, and all their host You have commanded. (Isaiah 45:12) It is You Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited.
You have proclaimed time and again: “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’.
I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right (Isaiah 45:18-19). Indeed Lord, Your hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and Your right hand has stretched out the heavens. When You call to those heavens, they stand up together. (Isaiah 48:13)
Time and again we heard the preacher say those words from Isaiah’s mouth: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.” Truly we understand the what was said to David; “Where is the house that you will build Me? Where is the place of My rest?” We remember that Stephen cited this passage before the Sanhedrin in reminding them that You do not in stone and Golden palaces. “For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” You say O Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word. O Lord it is our desire to be that people! Give us a that poor and contrite heart and let us tremble, truly tremble and the sound of Your voice this morning! For Lord, we know that that is where godliness lay…
Meet with us and let us know that we have met with You…
We stand alone Lord. We stand as Your people among the peoples of the earth. You have placed us as Your beacon among nations and asked us to shine among them. Hear, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see. (Isaiah 37:16-17a) For they raise their voices and their fists against you. Hear all the words of the unredeemed, which have raised up a reproach the living God. (Isaiah 37:b).
How can they stand against You O Lord? Who of them has measured the waters in the hollow of Your hand or measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Which of them has weighed the mountains in scales or the hills in a balance?
Their pride drives their mouths to striking blasphemies Father, but yet, Who has directed the You, or as You counselor has taught You? With which of them did You ask opinion in any matter, and who instructed You and taught You in the path of what is just? Who has knowledge of anything that You do not already have and can show You the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. You lift up the very islands as a very little thing! The entire forests of Lebanon are not sufficient to burn, nor are its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. Lord, all nations before You are as nothing. In truth, they are counted as less than nothing and worthless compared to Your worth. (Isaiah 40:12-17).
Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number. Lord, You call them all by name, by the greatness of Your might and the strength of His power, not one of the called are missing. (Isaiah 40:26)
We hear what Isaiah says and we wonder at its’ beauty Lord!
1Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
I want to make a joyful shout Lord, I truly wish it was all lands! I truly wish it was all peoples - it grieves my heart that men dishonor and forget you and treat you as it you were not there. I am not certain sometimes what keeps me from shouting, but for my own pride and my own flesh, my own desire to not appear foolish in the eyes of those same peoples. Lord, show me how I can shout, let me lift my voice and show your glory to all me without reservation and without thought for my own reputation!
2Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
Pride is a horror to me. Let it not be found in me. Let me be glad to serve and let me be ever seeking to humbly and without thought for self bowing my knee to you. Lord, I give myself to you and let you and your service my all in all. I am nothing and my future is nothing but yours to use. When I in your presence, let that the happiest time there is for me!
3Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
I do know it Lord. Let me now live it in every thing and every thought. Let it rule my every breath and every waking moment. God, I want to be about nothing but the serving of you and your church, at large and at the Church because I know that it you who made me and not I. I know that I am yours and the sheep of your pasture.
4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Oh Lord, when I enter your presence, let it not be with a petition on my lips, but with thankful praise in my heart. Let me not come wanting something. But let me come simply because you are my Father and I want to be with you and praise you and thank you for what you have done for me. I don't mean to be trite and meaningless - but Lord, how tiring it must be for you to hear a list of shopping requests all the time. God let me be faithful to pray and to ask for you command me to do so. But let me also be faithful to simply be thankful and full of praise as well! For you are surely a God who deserves both!
5For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Oh God how can a man even begin to express how good you truly are? How can good, a human word say what God is? We are men and we think in human terms, but you are God. We long for eternity so that we can, at last, see you as you are and have tongues that praise you as you deserve to be praised! O Lord - bring that day quickly. Until then - give us hearts to worship and praise you and tongues that never tire of worshipping and praising.
Oh Lord, You are great and greatly to be praised; You are to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the You made the heavens. They are for nothing but dishonor while honor and majesty are before You and strength and beauty are in His sanctuary (Ps 96:4-6). And so I will bless the Lord, and all His works, in all places of His dominion. I will say with David: Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Ps 103:22).
Indeed! Bless the Lord, O my soul! For You are very great O Lord my God! You are clothed with honor and majesty and cover Yourself with light as with a garment; stretching out the heavens like a curtain. You lay the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, You make the clouds His chariot, You walk on the wings of the wind, You make Your angels spirits and Your ministers a flame of fire. (Ps 104:1-4).
O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions—This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about; and there is that Leviathan; which You have made to play there. Lord, these all wait for You in Your greatness and majesty; that You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in. You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created. May Your great glory endure forever. May You rejoice in Your works. (Ps 104:24-32).
Oh Lord help me to see that Your Word and Your creation stand together. For forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven and Your faithfulness endures to all generations. And You established the earth, and it abides. They both continue this day according to Your ordinances, according to the faithfulness, the trustworthiness and power of Your Word; for all are Your servants. (Ps 119:89-91).
Lord, David proclaimed that all we know of our trust in You rests in that You made heaven and earth; even the truth that our help comes from the Lord. He said "I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help?" And he knew, and we know as well, that that help comes from You for He who made the hills can certainly help ones such as we! (Ps 121:1-2). Our help is in the name of the Lord, The One Who made heaven and earth. (Ps 124:8).
You condescend to us in mercy and that mercy endures for ever Lord! To You Lord give abundant thanks! For You are good! You are the God of gods!; The Lord of lords! You, by wisdom made the heavens; You laid out the earth above the waters, You made great lights, the sun to rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night. (Ps 136:5-9). Truly Lord - You are worthy of our Thanks and of our Praise!
Well and truly David said: "Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever…" (Ps 146:5-6).
Ah Lord - We shout with Your Word:
1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! 2 Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! 3 Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light! 4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, And you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created. 6 He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away. (Ps 148:1-6).
Ah Lord God, You have been my dwelling place, and not mine alone, You have been our dwelling place, the dwelling place of Your people for all generations. There is no doubt that You are God and that You are sovereign for before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, as David proclaimed, You are God. (Ps 90:2). In Your hand are the deep places of the earth; places I've never seen or even thought of. The heights of the hills are Yours also. Likewise the sea is Yours, for You made it; and Your hands formed the dry land. How can I help but fall down and worship, but bow down and worship a God such as this. How can I not kneel before the Lord my Maker? For He is My God, and I am, we are the people of His pasture. Moreover, we are sheep cared for and protected by His own good, right hand (Ps 95:4-7).
Lord, I long to see the face of He Who, of old, laid the foundations of the earth. It is my heart's desire to come and to dwell with Him whose work is the heavens above. I know I will come to You, all of Your children will. The heavens and the earth will perish, but You will endure; they will all grow old like a garment and like a cloak You will change them and behold!; they will be changed. Ah! But You are the same, and Your years will have no end. The children of Your servants will continue, and their descendants will be established before You.” (Ps 102:26-28). Lord, I long for that day - the longer I live the great that longing becomes!
Lord, You are greater even that the greatest strength in Your world! "You established the mountains by Your strength, Being clothed with power; You who still the noise of the seas, The noise of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples."(Ps 65:6-7). Oh Lord, to make such majesty and such great strength You must be all the more strong and majestic. Greatness can only come from that is the more great!
Lord, even the great concepts and guiding precepts of our creations are Yours, you put them in place! They didn't just happen - they were your idea! They didn't just evolve! "The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun. You have set all the borders of the earth; You have made summer and winter." (Ps 74:16-17). It is God who set the boundaries of the world in place and the rotations and the orbits of the planets in their cycles. They didn't just happen or evolve over millions of years. Oh Lord, they are the product of your design!
Lord, you designed the skies, the heavens to declare Your glory and to draw our attention to You and focus our hearts on Your glory! "And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has established forever." (Ps 78:69). Lord, let it do so! Help me to see the skies and the heavens and worship and to praise You! Let me not walk under that canopy and do so without thinking of Your power and Your glory! Teach me more…There is never a time when I know all there is to know about the God of Creation Lord. Show me what a great God you and impress on me more of Who You are by showing me more of Your Creation!
You know them and can reveal them to me for... "The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them...(Ps 89:11-12a). Tell me of them Lord, show them to me, teach me of You as you show them to me.
My God, I affirm with Nehemiah that You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, Lord - No being that is was not made but by Your hand! The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them is because of Your strong right arm and because Your great mind. You preserve them all. For this I and all of the host of heaven worships You. (Neh. 9:6).
As Job said, You alone spread out the heavens, and You alone have tread on the waves of the sea (Job 9:8). You made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades and You made the chambers of the south. You do great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number. (Job 9:8-10). I will ask the beasts, and they will teach me; and the birds of the air, and they will tell me Lord; I will speak to the earth, and it will teach me; and to the fish of the sea will explain to me. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this, in His hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?. (Job 12:7-9)
O Lord, You stretch out the north over empty space; You hang the earth on nothing, You bind up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. You cover the face of Your throne, and spread your cloud over it. You drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at Your rebuke. You stir up the sea with Your power and by Your understanding You break up the storm. Lord, by Your Spirit You adorned the heavens. These are only the mere edges of Your ways. And how small a whisper we hear of You! But the thunder of Your power who can understand?". (Job 26:7-14) Truly Father we understand what You allow us to understand but who can understand You in your greatness?
Oh Lord - I worship You as David worshipped you as Creator. David knew You as the Creator God and knew the implications of what that meant: "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:3-5) He understood, I do Lord, that You have created a wonderful world and stood us, stood me at the top of it. O Lord how wonderful are your works!
Everywhere I look, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork". (Ps 19:1). There can be no question but that there is a God and that You are powerful and that You are in charge of all things. My knee bows before you. "The earth is Yours and all that is in it, You do with it as You will. The earth is Yours, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. For You have founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters" (Psalm 24:1-2).
"By Your Word the heavens were made oh Lord, and all the host of them by the breath of Your mouth! You gather the waters of the sea together as a heap; You lay up the deep in storehouses. Oh Lord, let all the earth fear the Lord, Let me fear You rightly!; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of You. For You spoke, and it was done; You commanded, and it stood fast". (Psalm 33:6-9) Lord, what other is there of Whom this can be said? Where else can we look to see a Being that controls all and holds all in the palm of His hand?
O Lord you created the heavens and the earth...and all the host of them, were finished…And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done…and it was good! Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. You are the Creator God and your strong arm created all that is! Nothing exists hat You did bring to pass. The processes you set in motion either directly or indirectly are responsible for all that is.
You formed me of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and I became a living being and I praise you for it. I am made in the likeness of God, fearfully and wonderfully - show me what that means! How glorious that is!
How marvelous is it that "in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Surely you are God and no man could do anything like that!
David said you are a God "Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them." When I consider the abundance and the variety of all that is there Lord it boggle my mind - but then when I consider the God of the heavens - I am not amazed because I know you are who you are!
Samuel said that “the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, And He has set the world upon them". The picture of you that this draws for us is a God so mighty that it comforts and encourages us to trust you without question.
On the day David brought the Tabernacle to Jerusalem and put it in Tabernacle he praised you saying: "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens." Of a truth, Lord - I look around and that is the case today as well - all of the gods of our world are but idols as well. They are dumb pieces of stone, figments of the depraved imagination of men. Only you are God - only you are the Creator, only You are to be worshipped.
Matthew Henry, this morning in my "Praying the Way the Bible Prays", offering said:
I must take hold of the great encouragement God has given me to humble myself before him with sorrow and shame, and to confess my sins.
It is important that we not just make the list of sins that we have committed but that we grasp his forgiveness in our prayers!
I think that this, perhaps is more important than listing them. I don't really think that God is interested in a laundry list, of our sins He is aware, painfully so. He has known them from eternity past. They are the reason for which He sent His only Son, Jesus my Lord to suffer and die. Those stripes were the stripes numbered for each and every one of my sins, counted severally and known intimately by my God. No, I don't think He need to be have the list enumerated particularly before Him for His benefit.
Now it could be, and very often is, that I need to confess particulars for my own benefit. I need to be sure that I am recognizing that all of what I am doing is horrid and awful before God. But I ought not fall down into the very sacramental idea of enumerating my sins before God so that they are "covered" simply because I have confessed them.
After all, the announcing of them is not what covers them anyway. Nowhere in the Bible when men of God fell on there faces and confessed their sins do them going into the gory details. Rather we see them dwelling on the offense that their sin was before God and lamenting the fall itself, the offense that the sin was to a holy and pure God.
I think that our idea of listing our sins and running through the "forgive me for…" routine is really a left over from old Roman Catholic days. That is the routine in confessional. The specific confession specific sins and the assignment of specific acts of penance to "atone" for them. That skewed idea of atonement and erroneous idea of how sin is paid for carried over into Protestantism after the Reformation to some degree. It is not Biblical and never has been. The idea that we must go to the church for forgiveness and must enumerate our sins was God's intention. Further, the idea that I must list all of my sins or I don't get forgiven undercuts the very idea what Christ came to do in the first place. It puts sanctification at the very least on a works basis and that is unacceptable.
We are saved by Grace alone through Faith alone because of Christ alone. There is nothing more than that involved in the mix. When we confess our sins, we must remember that! Matthew Henry put it well when he gave us these examples of how we ought to confess our sin:
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared; Psalm 130:3-4 with you there is steadfast love; yes, with my God there is plentiful redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Psalm 130:7-8(ESV)
Your sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise; Psalm 51:17(ESV) indeed, though you are the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; Isaiah 57:15(ESV) though heaven is your throne and the earth your footstool, yet this is the one to whom you will look, he who is poor and humble, broken and contrite in spirit, and trembles at your word, Isaiah 66:1-2(ESV) to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15(ESV)
You have graciously assured me that those who conceal their transgressions will not prosper, yet those who confess and forsake them will obtain mercy. Proverbs 28:13(ESV) And when a poor penitent said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," you forgave the iniquity of his sin; therefore, let everyone who is godly, in like manner, offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Psalm 32:5-6(ESV)
I know that if I say I have no sin, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me; but you have said that if I confess my sins, you are faithful and just to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9(ESV)
With the attention on God and not on us, on the work of Christ and it its finished character and magnificent nature, that kind of prayer brings great glory to God and gladness to the heart!
