Category: ESV First Person

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Beg for the Spirit’s Assistance in Prayer and Aim for God’s Glory

Adoration 1.19 | ESV

We must beg for the powerful assistance and influence of the blessed Spirit of grace in our prayers.

Lord, I do not know what to pray for as I ought, but let your Spirit help me in my weakness and intercede for me. Romans 8:26(ESV)

O pour upon me a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, Zechariah 12:10(ESV) the Spirit of adoption teaching me to cry, “Abba, Father”; Romans 8:15(ESV) that I may find in my heart to pray this prayer: Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me, let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling; to God, my exceeding joy. Psalm 43:3-4(ESV)

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. Psalm 51:15(ESV)

We must make the glory of God our highest end in all our prayers.

This is what you, O LORD, have said: that you will be sanctified among those who are near you, and before all the people you will be glorified. Leviticus 10:3(ESV) I therefore worship before you, O Lord, that I may glorify your name; Psalm 86:9(ESV) and therefore I call upon you, that you may deliver me, and I may glorify you. Psalm 50:15(ESV)

For from you and through you and to you are all things. Romans 11:36(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Entreat God’s Favorable Acceptance

Adoration 1.18 | ESV

We must entreat God’s favorable acceptance of us and our poor performances.

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?” But this I say, “O LORD, lift up the light of your face upon me, and that shall put joy in my heart, more than they have when their grain and wine abound.” Psalm 4:6-7(ESV)

I entreat your favor with all my heart, Psalm 119:58(ESV) for in this I labor, that whether I am at home or away, I may please the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:9(ESV)

Hear my prayer, O LORD, give ear to my pleas for mercy; in your faithfulness answer me, Psalm 143:1(ESV) and be near to me whenever I call upon you; Deuteronomy 4:7(ESV) for you have never said to the offspring of Jacob, “Seek me in vain.” Isaiah 45:19(ESV)

You who hear the young ravens that cry, Psalm 147:9(ESV) be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Psalm 28:1(ESV)

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands be acceptable in your sight as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Profess your Believing Hope and Confidence in God

Adoration 1.17 | ESV

We must likewise profess our believing hope and confidence in God and his all-sufficiency, in his power, providence, and promise.

In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; Psalm 31:1(ESV) indeed, let none who wait for you be put to shame. Psalm 25:3(ESV)

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation: He only is my rock and my salvation! Psalm 62:1-2(ESV) In him is my glory, my might, and my refuge; and my hope is from him. Psalm 62:5-7(ESV)

When no refuge remains to me, and no one cares for my soul, I cry to you, O LORD, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Psalm 142:4-5(ESV)

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but I trust in the name of the LORD my God. Psalm 20:7(ESV) I will trust in your steadfast love, O God, forever and ever, and will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly. Psalm 52:8-9(ESV)

I have hoped in your word; Psalm 119:81(ESV) O remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. Psalm 119:49(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Humbly Profess the Desire of your Heart for God

Adoration 1.16 | ESV

We must humbly profess the desire of our hearts towards God, as our felicity and portion and fountain of life and all good to us.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you or in comparison with you. When my flesh and my heart fail, Lord, be the strength of my heart and my portion forever, Psalm 73:25-26(ESV) the chosen portion of my inheritance in the other world and of my cup in this; and then I will say that the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and that I have a beautiful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6(ESV)

Your name and remembrance are the desire of my soul; my soul yearns for you in the night, and my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. Isaiah 26:8-9(ESV)

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God; my soul thirsts for God, for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2(ESV) who commands his steadfast love by day, and at night his song is with me; a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:8(ESV)

O that I may come hungering and thirsting after righteousness, Matthew 5:6(ESV) for you fill the hungry with good things, but the rich you send away empty. Luke 1:53(ESV)

O that my soul may thirst for you, and my flesh faint for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water; that I may see your power and glory, as I have looked upon you in the sanctuary. Your steadfast love is better than life; Psalm 63:1-3(ESV) my soul will be satisfied with that as with fat and rich food, and then my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Express your Unworthiness to Draw Near to God

Adoration 1.15 | ESV

We must express the sense we have of our own meanness and unworthiness to draw near to God and speak to him.

But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? That God whom heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain, 2 Chronicles 6:18(ESV) with man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm? Job 25:6(ESV)

Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my father’s house that you have brought me thus far to present myself before the Lord? 2 Samuel 7:18(ESV) That I have through Christ an access in one Spirit to the Father? Ephesians 2:18(ESV) And yet, as if this had been a small thing in your sight, you have spoken concerning your servant for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 2 Samuel 7:19(ESV)

What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him, Psalm 8:4(ESV) and thus magnify him?

Oh let not the Lord be angry, Genesis 18:30(ESV) if I who am but dust and ashes undertake to speak to the Lord of glory. Genesis 18:27(ESV)

I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant; Genesis 32:10(ESV) nor is it right to take the children’s bread and throw it to such as I am; yet the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table; Matthew 15:26-27(ESV) and you bestow your riches on all who call on you. Romans 10:12(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Acknowledge the Privilege of Drawing Near to God in Prayer

Adoration 1.14 | ESV

We must acknowledge it an unspeakable favor and an inestimable privilege that we are not only admitted, but invited and encouraged, to draw near to God in prayer.

You have commanded me to pray always, with all prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, and, to that end, to keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints; Ephesians 6:18(ESV) to continue in prayer, and in everything, by prayer and supplication, to let my requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6(ESV)

You have directed me to ask and seek and knock, and have promised that I will receive, I will find, and it will be opened to me. Matthew 7:7(ESV)

You have appointed for me a great High Priest, in whose name I may draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that I may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16(ESV)

You have assured me that while the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the prayer of the upright is acceptable; Proverbs 15:8(ESV) and that the one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies you; Psalm 50:23(ESV) and the sacrifice of thanksgiving will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. Psalm 69:30-31(ESV)

You are he who hears prayer, and therefore to you shall all flesh come. Psalm 65:2(ESV)

You say, “Seek my face,” and my heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” Psalm 27:8(ESV) For, should not a person inquire of his God? Isaiah 8:19(ESV) To whom shall I go but to you? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:68(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Own your Relation to God

Adoration 1.13 | ESV

We must declare this God to be our God and own our relation to him, his dominion over us, and propriety in us.

My soul has said to the LORD, “You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you; Psalm 16:2(ESV) neither if I am righteous are you the better.” Job 35:7(ESV)

You are my King, O God: Psalm 44:4(ESV) Other lords besides you have ruled over me, but your name alone I bring to remembrance. Isaiah 26:13(ESV)

I declare today that the LORD is my God, and that I will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice and give myself to him, to be of his people for a treasured possession, as he has promised, that I may be of a holy people to the Lord my God; Deuteronomy 26:17-19(ESV) and might be to him for a name, a praise, and a glory. Jeremiah 13:11(ESV)

O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, born in your house, and you have loosed my bonds: Psalm 116:16(ESV) I have been bought with a price, and therefore I am not my own; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20(ESV) and so I yield myself to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 30:8(ESV) and join myself to him in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten. Jeremiah 50:5(ESV)

I am yours, save me, for I seek your precepts; Psalm 119:94(ESV) it is your own, Lord, that I give you, and that which comes from your hand. 1 Chronicles 29:16(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Acknowledge your Dependence on God and your Obligations to Him

Adoration 1.12 | ESV

We must acknowledge our dependence upon God and our obligations to him as our Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor.

You, O God, made me, and not I myself, therefore I am not my own but yours: 1 Corinthians 6:19(ESV) I am of your people and of the sheep of your pasture; Psalm 100:3(ESV) let me therefore worship and bow down and kneel before the LORD, my Maker. Psalm 95:6(ESV)

You, Lord, are the former of my body, and it is fearfully and wonderfully made and intricately woven. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:14-16(ESV)

You have clothed me with skin and flesh; you have knit me together with bones and sinews; you have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit. Job 10:11-12(ESV)

You are the Father of my spirit, Hebrews 12:9(ESV) for you formed the spirit of man within him, Zechariah 12:1(ESV) and made me this soul. Jeremiah 38:16(ESV) The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4(ESV) You put wisdom in the inward parts and give understanding to the mind. Job 38:36(ESV)

You are God my Maker, who teaches me more than the beasts of the earth and makes me wiser than the birds of the heavens. Job 35:10-11(ESV)

I am the clay, and you are my potter; I am the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8(ESV)

You are he that took me from the womb and kept me in safety when I was at my mother’s breasts; I have been cast upon you from my birth and held up by you. Psalm 22:9-10(ESV) You are my God from my mother’s womb, and therefore my praise is continually of you. Psalm 71:6(ESV)

In you, O God, I live and move and have my being, for I am your offspring. Acts 17:28(ESV)

In your hand is my breath, and yours are all my ways; Daniel 5:23(ESV) for the way of man is not in himself, neither is it in man who walks to direct his steps, Jeremiah 10:23(ESV) but my times are in your hand. Psalm 31:15(ESV)

You are the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day and redeemed me from all evil. Genesis 48:15-16(ESV)

It is because of the steadfast love of the LORD that I am not cut off, even because your mercies never come to an end: they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23(ESV)

If you take away my breath, I die and return to the dust out of which I was taken. Psalm 104:29(ESV)

Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? From your mouth, O Most High, both good and bad come. Lamentations 3:37-38(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Give Honor to the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Adoration 1.11 | ESV

We must give honor to the three persons in the Godhead distinctly, to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that great and sacred Name into which we were baptized and in which we assemble for religious worship, in communion with the universal church.

I pay my homage to three that testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; for these three are one. 1 John 5:7(KJV)

I adore you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Matthew 11:25(ESV) and the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God, through him all things were made, and without him was not any thing made that was made; John 1:1-3(ESV) and who in the fullness of time, Galatians 4:4(ESV) became flesh and dwelt among us and showed his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14(ESV)

And since it is the will of God that all men should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father, John 5:23(ESV) I adore him as the radiance of his Father’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature; Hebrews 1:3(ESV) herein joining with the angels of God, who were all bidden to worship him. Hebrews 1:6(ESV)

I pay homage to the exalted Redeemer, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, Revelation 1:5(ESV) confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:11(ESV)

I also worship the Holy Spirit, the Helper, whom the Son has sent from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, John 15:26(ESV) and who is sent to teach me all things and to bring all things to my remembrance; John 14:26(ESV) who indited the Scriptures, holy men of God writing them as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21(ESV)

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ESV First Person Method for Prayer

Give Glory to God as the Creator of the World

Adoration 1.10 | ESV

We must give glory to him as the Creator of the world and the great Protector, Benefactor, and Ruler of the whole creation.

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive blessing and honor and glory and power, for you have created all things, and for your praise and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11(ESV)

I worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water; Revelation 14:7(ESV) who spoke, and it came to be; who commanded, and it stood firm; Psalm 33:9(ESV) who said, “Let there be light,” and there was light; Genesis 1:3(ESV) “Let there be an expanse,” and he made the expanse; Genesis 1:6-7(ESV) and he made it all very good; Genesis 1:31(ESV) and they continue this day by his appointment, for all things are his servants. Psalm 119:91(ESV)

Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter. Psalm 74:16-17(ESV)

You uphold the universe by the word of your power, Hebrews 1:3(ESV) and in you all things hold together. Colossians 1:17(ESV)

The earth is full of your creatures, as is the great and wide sea. Psalm 104:24-25(ESV) The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season: You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Psalm 145:15-16(ESV) Man and beast you save, O LORD, Psalm 36:6(ESV) and give food to all flesh. Psalm 136:25(ESV)

You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you, Nehemiah 9:6(ESV) whose kingdom rules over all. Psalm 103:19(ESV)

A sparrow will not fall to the ground apart from you. Matthew 10:29(ESV)

You made man at first of dust from the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, and so he became a living creature. Genesis 2:7(ESV)

And you have made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. Acts 17:26(ESV)

You are the Most High, who rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever you will; Daniel 4:25(ESV) for it is from the LORD that a man gets justice. Proverbs 29:26(ESV)

Hallelujah, the Lord God Almighty reigns, Revelation 19:6(ESV) and works all things according to the counsel of his own will, to the praise of his own glory! Ephesians 1:11-12(ESV)