Category: NASB First Person

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Lament and Confess your Sins of Omission

Confession 2.6 | NASB

I must lament and confess my omissions of 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 You have come many years looking for fruit from me without finding any; and therefore I might justly be cut down and thrown into the fire for using up the ground: Luke 13:6-7(NASB) You have come looking for good grapes, but behold worthless ones; Isaiah 5:4(NASB) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit for myself. Hosea 10:1(NASB)

I have known the right thing to do, but have not done it. James 4:17(NASB) I have hid my Master’s money, Matthew 25:18(NASB) and therefore deserve the doom of the wicked and lazy servant. Matthew 25:26(NASB)

I have been an unfaithful steward who has squandered my Lord’s possessions, Luke 16:1(NASB) for one sinner destroys much good. Ecclesiastes 9:18(NASB)

Many a price has been put in my hands to buy wisdom, which I have had no sense to; Proverbs 17:16(NASB) or like the fool my heart has been directed toward the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2(NASB)

My childhood and the prime of life were fleeting, Ecclesiastes 11:10(NASB) and I have finished my years like a sigh. Psalm 90:9(NASB)

I have not recognized or improved the day of my visitation; Luke 19:44(NASB) have not prepared my food in the summer nor gathered my provision in the harvest, though I have had chiefs, officers, and rulers. Proverbs 6:7-8(NASB)

I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(NASB) and whereas by this time I might have been a teacher of others, I have yet to learn the elementary principles of the oracles of God: I need milk and not solid food. Hebrews 5:12(NASB)

I have done away with reverence and hindered meditation before God; Job 15:4(NASB) have not called on Your name, nor aroused myself to take hold of You. Isaiah 64:7(NASB)

I have come to You as Your people come and have sat before You as Your people sit and have heard Your words, when my heart at the same time has been going after my gain. Ezekiel 33:31(NASB) 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(NASB) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a blemished animal, when I had a male in my flock. Malachi 1:14(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Lament and Confess the Corruption of your Entire Being

Confession 2.5 | NASB

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(NASB) Dust I am: Genesis 3:19(NASB) I have borne the image of the earthy; 1 Corinthians 15:49(NASB) and in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells nothing good. For if the willing is present in me, yet the doing of the good is not; for the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. Romans 7:18-19(NASB)

I have a law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members; Romans 7:23(NASB) so that evil is present in me, one who wants to do good, Romans 7:21(NASB) and easily entangles me. Hebrews 12:1(NASB)

The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts, and raw wounds. Isaiah 1:5-6(NASB)

There is in me a bent on turning from the living God: Hosea 11:7(NASB) My heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9(NASB) It starts aside like a broken bow. Hosea 7:16(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Lament and Confess your Vain Thoughts and Carnal Affections

Confession 2.4 | NASB

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

O how long have those wicked thoughts lodged within me! Jeremiah 4:14(NASB) Like the devising of folly, those thoughts are sin. Proverbs 24:9(NASB) From within, out of the heart, come evil thoughts; Matthew 15:19(NASB) which work out evil on the bed, Micah 2:1(NASB) and carry the heart with the fool’s eyes to the ends of the earth. Proverbs 17:24(NASB)

But God is not in all my thoughts; Psalm 10:4(KJV) it is well if He is any of them. I have neglected the Rock who begot me, and have forgotten the God who gave me birth: Deuteronomy 32:18(NASB) I have forgotten Him days without number, Jeremiah 2:32(NASB) and my heart has walked after emptiness and become empty. Jeremiah 2:5(NASB) My inner thought having been that my house was forever: Psalm 49:11(NASB) this, my way, is the way of those who are foolish. Psalm 49:13(NASB)

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

I have set my mind on things beneath, which should have been set on things above, where my treasure is, Matthew 6:21(NASB) where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; Colossians 3:1-2(NASB) these are the things which I should seek.

I have followed after vain idols and forsaken my faithfulness; Jonah 2:8(NASB) have forsaken the fountain of living waters, for cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13(NASB)

I have panted after the very dust of the earth, Amos 2:7(NASB) and have been full of care regarding what I shall eat and what I shall drink and what I shall wear for clothing, the things which the Gentiles eagerly seek. Matthew 6:31-33(NASB)

I have lifted up my soul to falsehood, Psalm 24:4(NASB) and set my eyes on the things which are not; have looked at the things which are seen, which are temporal, but the things which are eternal have been forgotten and postponed. 2 Corinthians 4:18(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

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

Confession 2.3 | NASB

I must lament my present corrupt disposition to that which is evil, and my aversion 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.

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

By nature I am darkened in my understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in me, because of the hardness of my heart. Ephesians 4:18(NASB)

The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man; neither can I understand them, in and of myself, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14(NASB)

I am shrewd to do evil, but to do good I do not know. Jeremiah 4:22(NASB) I do not know nor do I understand; I walk about in darkness. Psalm 82:5(NASB)

Indeed, God speaks once, or twice, yet I do not notice it; Job 33:14(NASB) I keep on hearing, but I do not understand; Matthew 13:14(NASB) and I see men as trees, walking around. Mark 8:24(NASB)

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

I have within me a mind set on the flesh, which is hostile toward God and does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Romans 8:7(NASB)

You have written for me ten thousand precepts of Your law, yet they have been regarded by me as a strange thing; Hosea 8:12(NASB) and my corrupt heart has been sometimes ready to say, “Who is the Almighty, that I should serve Him?” Job 21:15(NASB) And that I would certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from my mouth. Jeremiah 44:17(NASB) For I have followed the impulses of my heart and the desires of my eyes, Ecclesiastes 11:9(NASB) indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Ephesians 2:3(NASB)

My neck has been an iron sinew, Isaiah 48:4(NASB) and I have made my heart like flint; I have refused to pay attention, turned a stubborn shoulder, Zechariah 7:11-12(NASB) and stopped my ears like a deaf cobra that does not hear the voice of charmers, or a skillful caster of spells. Psalm 58:4-5(NASB)

How I have hated instruction! And my heart has spurned reproof! I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to my instructors. Proverbs 5:12-13(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Confess and Bewail your Original Corruption

Confession 2.2 | NASB

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

Lord, You made men upright, but they have sought out many devices; Ecclesiastes 7:29(NASB) and being in honor, they did not understand, and therefore did not abide, but became like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:20(NASB)

Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned: Romans 5:12(NASB) Through that one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, including me. Romans 5:19(NASB)

I am the offspring of evildoers; Isaiah 1:4(NASB) my father was an Amorite and my mother a Hittite, Ezekiel 16:3(NASB) and I myself was called (and not miscalled) a rebel from birth, and You knew I would deal very treacherously. Isaiah 48:8(NASB)

The nature of man was planted a choice and noble vine, a completely faithful seed, but it has become the degenerate shoot of a foreign vine, Jeremiah 2:21(NASB) producing the grapes of Sodom and the clusters of Gomorrah. Deuteronomy 32:32(NASB) How dark the gold has become, how the pure gold has changed! Lamentations 4:1(NASB)

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5(NASB) For, who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one! Job 14:4(NASB) I am by nature a child of wrath, because a son of disobedience, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:2-3(NASB)

All flesh has corrupted their way; Genesis 6:12(NASB) we have all turned aside, together we have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Psalm 14:3(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

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

Confession 2.1 | NASB

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.

If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand! But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared; Psalm 130:3-4(NASB) with You there is lovingkindness; yes, with my God there is abundant redemption, and He will redeem Israel from all His iniquities. Psalm 130:7-8(NASB)

Your sacrifices, O God, are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise; Psalm 51:17(NASB) indeed, though You are the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is holy; Isaiah 57:15(NASB) though heaven is Your throne and the earth is Your footstool, yet to this one You will look: to him who is poor and humble, broken and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at Your word; Isaiah 66:1-2(NASB) in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. Isaiah 57:15(NASB)

You have graciously assured me that those who conceal their transgressions will not prosper, yet those who confess and forsake them will find compassion. Proverbs 28:13(NASB) And when a poor penitent said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” You forgave the guilt of his sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly, in like manner, pray to You in a time when You may be found. Psalm 32:5-6(NASB)

I know that if I say I have no sin, I am deceiving myself and the truth is not in me; but You have said that if I confess my sins, You are faithful and righteous to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Introduction and Acknowledgement of the Need for Lowliness before God

Confession 2.0 | NASB

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

Having ascribed glory to God which is His due, Psalm 29:2(NASB) 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(NASB) 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 embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for my iniquities have risen above my head and my guilt has grown even to the heavens. Ezra 9:6(NASB)

Open shame belongs to me, because I have sinned against You. Daniel 9:8(NASB)

Behold I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I will lay my hand on my mouth, Job 40:4(NASB) and put my mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope, Lamentations 3:29(NASB) crying with the convicted leper under the law, “Unclean! Unclean!” Leviticus 13:45(NASB)

You put no trust in Your holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in Your sight; how much less one who is detestable and corrupt: man, who drinks iniquity like water! Job 15:15-16(NASB)

When my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts, I have reason to cry out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” Isaiah 6:5(NASB)

Dominion and awe belong to You who establishes peace in Your heights: There is not any number of Your troops, and upon whom does Your light not rise? How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? Job 25:2-4(NASB)

You, even You, are to be feared; and who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry? Psalm 76:7(NASB) Even You, my God, are a consuming fire; Hebrews 12:29(NASB) and who understands the power of Your anger? Psalm 90:11(NASB)

Though I was righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; if I said, “I am guiltless,” You would declare me guilty; Job 9:20(NASB) for if You dispute with me, I could not answer You once in a thousand times. Job 9:3(NASB)

If I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted, for the one who examines me is the Lord, 1 Corinthians 4:4(NASB) who is greater than my heart and knows all things. 1 John 3:20(NASB) But I myself know that I have sinned, Father, against heaven and in Your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called Your child. Luke 15:21(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Rely on Jesus Alone for Acceptance with God

Adoration 1.20 | NASB

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

I am not presenting my supplications before You on account of any merits of my own, Daniel 9:18(NASB) for I am before You in my guilt, Ezra 9:15(NASB) and cannot stand before You because of it; Psalm 130:3(NASB) but I make mention of Christ’s righteousness, even of His only, who is the LORD our righteousness, Jeremiah 23:6(NASB) and therefore the LORD my righteousness.

I know that even spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God only through Christ Jesus, 1 Peter 2:5(NASB) nor can I hope to receive anything but what I ask of You in His name; John 16:23(NASB) and therefore, freely bestow grace on me in the Beloved, Ephesians 1:6(NASB) that other angel who put much incense to the prayers of the saints and offers them up on the golden altar before the throne. Revelation 8:3(NASB)

I come in the name of the great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who can sympathize with my weaknesses, Hebrews 4:14-15(NASB) and is therefore able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, because He always lives, making intercession. Hebrews 7:25(NASB)

Behold my shield, O God, and look upon the face of Your Anointed, Psalm 84:9(NASB) in whom You have by a voice out of the heavens declared Yourself to be well-pleased; Lord, be well-pleased with me in Him. Matthew 3:17(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

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

Adoration 1.19 | NASB

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

Lord, I do not know how to pray as I should, but let Your Spirit help my weaknesses and make intercession for me. Romans 8:26(NASB)

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

O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare Your praise. Psalm 51:15(NASB)

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

This is what You, O LORD, have said: that by those who come near You, You will be treated as holy, and before all the people You will be honored; Leviticus 10:3(NASB) I therefore worship before You, O Lord, that I may glorify Your name; Psalm 86:9(NASB) and therefore I call on You, that You may rescue me, and I may honor You. Psalm 50:15(NASB)

For from You and through You and to You are all things. Romans 11:36(NASB)

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Method for Prayer NASB First Person

Entreat God’s Favorable Acceptance

Adoration 1.18 | NASB

I must entreat God’s favorable acceptance of me and my poor performances.

Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?” But this we say, “Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD,” and that shall fill our hearts with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. Psalm 4:6-7(NIV)

We have sought your face with all our heart, Psalm 119:58(NIV) for in this we labor, that whether at home in the body or away from it, we may please the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:9(NIV)

O LORD, hear our prayer, listen to our cry for mercy; in your faithfulness come to our relief, Psalm 143:1(NIV) and be near us whenever we pray to you; Deuteronomy 4:7(NIV) for you have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek me in vain.” Isaiah 45:19(NIV)

You who hear the young ravens when they call, Psalm 147:9(NIV) do not turn a deaf ear to us, for if you remain silent, we will be like those who have gone down to the pit. Psalm 28:1(NIV)

May our prayer be set before you like incense, and the lifting up of our hands be acceptable in your sight like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2(NIV)