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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Bewail your Many Actual Transgressions, Especially your Pride

Confession 2.7 | KJV

I must likewise bewail my many actual transgressions, in thought, word, and deed.

I have sinned, Father, against heaven and before thee: Luke 15:18(KJV) All have sinned and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23(KJV) for the God in whose hand my breath is, and whose are all my ways, have I not glorified. Daniel 5:23(KJV)

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and have done much evil in thy sight; Psalm 51:4(KJV) neither have I obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, to walk in his laws which he hath set before me, Daniel 9:10(KJV) though they are holy, just, and good. Romans 7:12(KJV)

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Psalm 19:12(KJV)

In many things I offend, James 3:2(KJV) and my iniquities are more than the hairs of my head. Psalm 40:12(KJV)

As a fountain casteth out her waters, so does my heart cast out wickedness; Jeremiah 6:7(KJV) and this hath been my manner from my youth up, that I have not obeyed thy voice. Jeremiah 22:21(KJV)

Out of the evil treasure of my heart, I have brought forth many evil things. Matthew 12:35(KJV)

I must confess and bewail the workings of pride in me.

I have all reason to be humbled for the pride of my heart, 2 Chronicles 32:26(KJV) that I have thought of myself above what hath been meet, and have not thought soberly, Romans 12:3(KJV) nor walked humbly with my God. Micah 6:8(KJV)

I have leaned to my own understanding, Proverbs 3:5(KJV) and trusted in my own heart, Proverbs 28:26(KJV) and have sacrificed to my own net. Habakkuk 1:16(KJV)

I have sought my own glory more than the glory of him that sent me, John 7:18(KJV) and have been puffed up with that for which I should have mourned. 1 Corinthians 5:2(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Lament and Confess your Sins of Omission

Confession 2.6 | KJV

I must lament and confess my omissions of my duty, my neglect of it and triflings 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 thou hast come many years seeking fruit from me but hast found none; and therefore I might justly be cut down and cast into the fire for cumbering the ground: Luke 13:6-7(KJV) Thou hast come looking for grapes, but behold wild grapes; Isaiah 5:4(KJV) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit unto myself. Hosea 10:1(KJV)

I have known to do good, but have not done it. James 4:17(KJV) I have hid my Lord’s money, Matthew 25:18(KJV) and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and slothful servant. Matthew 25:26(KJV)

I have been an unfaithful steward that has wasted my Lord’s goods, Luke 16:1(KJV) for one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes 9:18(KJV)

Many a price hath been put into my hand to get wisdom, which I have had no heart to, Proverbs 17:16(KJV) or my heart hath been at my left hand. Ecclesiastes 10:2(KJV)

My childhood and youth were vanity, Ecclesiastes 11:10(KJV) and I have brought my years to an end, as a tale that is told. Psalm 90:9(KJV)

I have not known or improved the day of my visitation; Luke 19:44(KJV) have not provided meat in summer nor gathered food in harvest, though I have had guides, overseers, and rulers. Proverbs 6:7-8(KJV)

I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(KJV) and whereas for the time I might have been a teacher of others, I am yet to learn the first principles of the oracles of God: have need of milk and cannot bear strong meat. Hebrews 5:12(KJV)

I have cast off fear and restrained prayer before God; Job 15:4(KJV) have not called upon thy name, nor stirred up myself to take hold on thee. Isaiah 64:7(KJV)

I have come before thee as thy people come and have sat before thee as thy people sit and have heard thy words, when my heart at the same time has been going after my covetousness. Ezekiel 33:31(KJV) And thus have I brought the torn and the lame and the sick for sacrifice; have offered that to my God which I would not have offered to my governor; Malachi 1:8(KJV) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a corrupt thing, when I had in my flock a male. Malachi 1:14(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Lament and Confess the Corruption of your Entire Being

Confession 2.5 | KJV

The corruption of the whole man: Irregular appetites towards those things that are pleasing to sense, and inordinate passions against those things that are displeasing, and an alienation of the mind from the principles, powers, and pleasures of the spiritual and divine life.

I am born of the flesh, and I am flesh. John 3:6(KJV) Dust I am: Genesis 3:19(KJV) I have borne the image of the earthy; 1 Corinthians 15:49(KJV) and in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For if to will is present to me, yet how to perform that which is good, I find not; for the good which I would do, I do it not; and the evil which I would not do, that I do. Romans 7:18-19(KJV)

I have a law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members; Romans 7:23(KJV) so that when I would do good, evil is present with me, Romans 7:21(KJV) and most easily besets me. Hebrews 12:1(KJV)

The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in me, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Isaiah 1:5-6(KJV)

There is in me a bent to backslide from the living God: Hosea 11:7(KJV) My heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9(KJV) It starts aside like a broken bow. Hosea 7:16(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Lament and Confess your Vain Thoughts and Carnal Affections

Confession 2.4 | KJV

The vanity of my thoughts, their neglect of those things which they ought to be conversant with and dwelling upon those things that are unworthy of them and tend to corrupt my mind.

Every imagination of the thoughts of my heart is evil, only evil, and that continually, Genesis 6:5(KJV) and it has been so from my youth. Genesis 8:21(KJV)

O how long have those vain thoughts lodged within me! Jeremiah 4:14(KJV) those thoughts of foolishness which are sin! Proverbs 24:9(KJV) From within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts; Matthew 15:19(KJV) which devise mischief upon the bed, Micah 2:1(KJV) and carry the heart with the fool’s eyes into the ends of the earth. Proverbs 17:24(KJV)

But God is not in all my thoughts; Psalm 10:4(KJV) it is well if he be in any. Of the Rock that begat me, I have been unmindful and have forgotten the God that formed me: Deuteronomy 32:18(KJV) I have forgotten him days without number, Jeremiah 2:32(KJV) and my heart has walked after vanity and become vain. Jeremiah 2:5(KJV) My inward thought having been that my house should continue for ever; Psalm 49:11(KJV) this my way is my folly. Psalm 49:13(KJV)

The carnality of my affections, their being placed upon wrong objects and carried beyond due bounds.

I have set my affection on things beneath, which should have been set on things above, where my treasure is, Matthew 6:21(KJV) and where Christ sits on the right hand of God, Colossians 3:1-2(KJV) the things which I should seek.

I have followed after lying vanities and forsaken my own mercies; Jonah 2:8(KJV) have forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13(KJV)

I have panted after the dust of the earth, Amos 2:7(KJV) and have been full of care what I shall eat and what I shall drink and wherewithal I shall be clothed, the things after which the Gentiles seek, and the righteousness thereof. Matthew 6:31-33(KJV)

I have lifted up my soul unto vanity, Psalm 24:4(KJV) and set my eyes upon that which is not; have looked at the things that are seen, which are temporal, but the things that are eternal have been forgotten and postponed. 2 Corinthians 4:18(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Lament your Disposition to Evil and Confess your Blind Understanding and Stubborn Will

Confession 2.3 | KJV

I must lament my present corrupt disposition to that which is evil, and my indisposedness to and impotency in that which is good. I must look into my own heart and confess with holy blushing:

The blindness of my understanding and its unaptness to admit the rays of the divine light.

By nature my understanding is darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in me, because of the blindness of my heart. Ephesians 4:18(KJV)

The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man, neither can I know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14(KJV)

I am wise to do evil, but to do good I have no knowledge. Jeremiah 4:22(KJV) I know not, neither do I understand; I walk on in darkness. Psalm 82:5(KJV)

God speaketh once, yea, twice, but I perceive it not; Job 33:14(KJV) but hearing, I hear and do not understand; Matthew 13:14(KJV) and I see men as trees walking. Mark 8:24(KJV)

The stubbornness of my will and its unaptness to submit to the rules of the divine law.

I have within me a carnal mind, which is enmity against God and is not in subjection to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Romans 8:7(KJV)

Thou hast written to me the great things of thy law, but they have been accounted by me a strange thing; Hosea 8:12(KJV) and my corrupt heart has been sometimes ready to say, What is the Almighty, that I should serve him? Job 21:15(KJV) And that I would certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of my own mouth. Jeremiah 44:17(KJV) For I have walked in the way of my own heart and in the sight of my eyes, Ecclesiastes 11:9(KJV) fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Ephesians 2:3(KJV)

My neck hath been an iron sinew, Isaiah 48:4(KJV) and I have made my heart as an adamant stone; I have refused to hearken, have pulled away the shoulder, Zechariah 7:11-12(KJV) and stopped my ears like the deaf adder that will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. Psalm 58:4-5(KJV)

How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me. Proverbs 5:12-13(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Confess and Bewail your Original Corruption

Confession 2.2 | KJV

I must therefore confess and bewail my original corruption in the first place, that I was the child of apostate and rebellious parents, and the nature of man is depraved and wretchedly degenerated from its primitive purity and rectitude, and my nature is so.

Lord, thou madest man upright, but they have sought out many inventions; Ecclesiastes 7:29(KJV) and being in honour did not understand, and therefore abode not, but became like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:20(KJV)

By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:12(KJV) By that one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, and I among the rest. Romans 5:19(KJV)

I am a seed of evil-doers; Isaiah 1:4(KJV) my father was an Amorite and my mother a Hittite, Ezekiel 16:3(KJV) and I myself was called (and not miscalled) a transgressor from the womb, and thou knewest I would deal very treacherously. Isaiah 48:8(KJV)

The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed, but it is become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, Jeremiah 2:21(KJV) producing the grapes of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrah. Deuteronomy 32:32(KJV) How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! Lamentations 4:1(KJV)

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5(KJV) For, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Job 14:4(KJV) I am by nature a child of wrath, because a child of disobedience, even as others. Ephesians 2:2-3(KJV)

All flesh hath corrupted their way, Genesis 6:12(KJV) we are all gone aside, we are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Psalm 14:3(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Take Hold of the God-Given Encouragement you Have to Confess Sin

Confession 2.1 | KJV

I must take hold of the great encouragement God hath given me to humble myself before him with sorrow and shame, and to confess my sins.

If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand! But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared; Psalm 130:3-4(KJV) with thee there is mercy; yea, with my God there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Psalm 130:7-8(KJV)

Thy sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise; Psalm 51:17(KJV) nay, though thou art the high and lofty One that inhabitest eternity, whose name is holy; Isaiah 57:15(KJV) though the heaven be thy throne and the earth thy footstool, yet to this man wilt thou look, that is poor and humble, of a broken and a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at thy word, Isaiah 66:1-2(KJV) to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isaiah 57:15(KJV)

Thou hast graciously assured me, though they that cover their sins shall not prosper, yet those that confess and forsake them shall find mercy. Proverbs 28:13(KJV) And when a poor penitent said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, thou forgavest the iniquity of his sin; for this shall every one that is godly, in like manner, pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Psalm 32:5-6(KJV)

I know that if I say I have no sin, I deceive myself, and the truth is not in me; but thou hast said that if I confess my sins, thou art faithful and just to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Introduction and Acknowledgement of the Need for Lowliness before God

Confession 2.0 | KJV

Of the Second Part of Prayer, which is Confession of Sin, Complaints Regarding Myself, and Humble Professions of Repentance

Having given glory to God which is his due, Psalm 29:2(KJV) I must next take shame to myself, which is my due, and humble myself before him in the sense of my own sinfulness and vileness; and herein also I must give glory to him, Joshua 7:19(KJV) as my Judge, by whom I deserve to be condemned, and yet hope, through Christ, to be acquitted and absolved.

In this part of my work, I must acknowledge the great reason I have to lie very low before God and to be ashamed of myself when I come into his presence and to be afraid of his wrath, having made myself both odious to his holiness and obnoxious to his justice.

O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face before thee, my God, for my iniquities are increased over my head, and my trespass is grown up into the heavens. Ezra 9:6(KJV)

To me belongs shame and confusion of face, because I have sinned against thee. Daniel 9:8(KJV)

Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth, Job 40:4(KJV) and put my mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope, Lamentations 3:29(KJV) crying with the convicted leper under the law, Unclean, unclean. Leviticus 13:45(KJV)

Thou puttest no trust in thy saints, and the heavens are not clean in thy sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water? Job 15:15-16(KJV)

When my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, I have reason to cry out, Woe unto me, for I am undone. Isaiah 6:5(KJV)

Dominion and fear are with thee, thou makest peace in thy high places: There is not any number of thine armies, and upon whom doth not thy light arise? How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Job 25:2-4(KJV)

Thou, even thou art to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? Psalm 76:7(KJV) Even thou, my God, art a consuming fire; Hebrews 12:29(KJV) and who knows the power of thine anger? Psalm 90:11(KJV)

If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me; if I say I am perfect, that also shall prove me perverse; Job 9:20(KJV) for if thou contend with me, I am not able to answer thee for one of a thousand. Job 9:3(KJV)

If I knew nothing by myself, yet am I not thereby justified, for he that judgeth me is the Lord, 1 Corinthians 4:4(KJV) who is greater than my heart and knows all things. 1 John 3:20(KJV) But I myself know that I have sinned, Father, against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy child. Luke 15:21(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

Rely on Jesus Alone for Acceptance with God

Adoration 1.20 | KJV

I must profess my entire reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for acceptance with God and come in his name.

I do not present my supplication before thee for my righteousness, Daniel 9:18(KJV) for I am before thee in my trespasses, Ezra 9:15(KJV) and cannot stand before thee because of them; Psalm 130:3(KJV) but I make mention of Christ’s righteousness, even of his only, who is the Lord our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6(KJV) and therefore the Lord my righteousness.

I know that even spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only through Christ Jesus, 1 Peter 2:5(KJV) nor can I hope to receive any thing but what I ask of thee in his name; John 16:23(KJV) and therefore, make me accepted in the Beloved, Ephesians 1:6(KJV) that other angel, who put much incense to the prayers of saints and offers them up upon the golden altar before the throne. Revelation 8:3(KJV)

I come in the name of the great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who was touched with the feeling of my infirmities, Hebrews 4:14-15(KJV) and is therefore able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God by him, because he ever lives, making intercession. Hebrews 7:25(KJV)

Behold, O God, my shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed, Psalm 84:9(KJV) in whom thou hast by a voice from heaven declared thyself to be well pleased; Lord, be well pleased with me in him. Matthew 3:17(KJV)

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KJV First Person Method for Prayer

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

Adoration 1.19 | KJV

I must beg for the powerful assistance and influence of the blessed Spirit of grace in my prayers.

Lord, I know not what to pray for as I ought, but let thy Spirit help my infirmities and make intercession for me. Romans 8:26(KJV)

O pour upon me the Spirit of grace and supplication, Zechariah 12:10(KJV) the Spirit of adoption teaching me to cry, Abba, Father; Romans 8:15(KJV) that I may find in my heart to pray this prayer: O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them guide me to thy holy hill and thy tabernacles; to God, my exceeding joy. Psalm 43:3-4(KJV)

O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Psalm 51:15(KJV)

I must make the glory of God my highest end in all my prayers.

This is that which thou, O Lord, hast said, that thou wilt be sanctified in them that come nigh unto thee, and before all the people thou wilt be glorified. Leviticus 10:3(KJV) I therefore worship before thee, O Lord, that I may glorify thy name; Psalm 86:9(KJV) and therefore I call upon thee, that thou mayest deliver me, and I may glorify thee. Psalm 50:15(KJV)

For of thee and through thee and to thee are all things. Romans 11:36(KJV)