A Method for Prayer01 Matthew Henry
2. WE MUST TAKE HOLD OF THE GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT GOD HAS GIVEN US TO HUMBLE OURSELVES BEFORE HIM WITH SORROW AND SHAME AND TO CONFESS OUR SINS.
If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand?
But there is forgiveness with you that you mayest be feared; with you there is mercy, yea with our God there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Psalm 130.3, 4, 7, 8.
Your sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise: Nay, though you are the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; though the heaven be your throne, and the earth your footstool, yet to this man will you look, that is poor and humble, of a broken and a contrite spirit, and that trembles at your word, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Psalm
51:17. Isaiah 57:15. Isaiah 66:1, 2. Isaiah 57:15.
You have graciously assured us, that though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them shall find mercy. And when a poor penitent said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, you forgave the iniquity of his sin, and for this shall every one that is godly in like manner pray unto you, in a time when you mayest be found. Proverbs 28:13. Psalm 32.5, 6.
We know that ifwe say, we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but you have said that ifwe confess our sins,