Category: NIV First Person

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Method for Prayer NIV First Person

Lament and Confess your Sins of Omission

Confession 2.6 | NIV

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 seeking fruit from me but have found none; and therefore I might justly be cut down and thrown into the fire for using up the soil: Luke 13:6-7(NIV) You have come looking for good grapes, but behold only bad ones; Isaiah 5:4(NIV) for I have been an empty vine bringing forth fruit for myself. Hosea 10:1(KJV)

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

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

Money has been put in my hand to get wisdom, which I have had no desire to get; Proverbs 17:16(NIV) or like the fool my heart has been inclined to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2(NIV)

My youth and vigor were meaningless, Ecclesiastes 11:10(NIV) and I am finishing my years with a moan. Psalm 90:9(NIV)

I have not recognized or improved the time of God’s coming to me; Luke 19:44(NIV) have not stored provisions in summer nor gathered food at harvest, though I have had commanders, overseers, and rulers. Proverbs 6:7-8(NIV)

I am slow of heart to understand and believe; Luke 24:25(NIV) and though by this time I ought to be a teacher of others, I am yet to learn the elementary truths of God’s word: I have need of milk and cannot bear solid food. Hebrews 5:12(NIV)

I have undermined piety and hindered devotion to God; Job 15:4(NIV) have not called on your name or striven to lay hold of you. Isaiah 54:7(NIV)

I have come before you as your people come and sat before you as your people sit and listened to your words, when my heart at the same time has been greedy for unjust gain. Ezekiel 33:31(KJV) And thus have I brought the torn and the crippled and the diseased for sacrifice; have offered that to my God which I would not have offered to my governor; Malachi 1:8(NIV) and have vowed and sacrificed to the Lord a blemished thing, when I had in my flock an acceptable male. Malachi 1:14(NIV)

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Method for Prayer NIV First Person

Lament and Confess the Corruption of your Entire Being

Confession 2.5 | NIV

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; I am flesh. John 3:6(NIV) Dust I am: Genesis 3:19(NIV) I have borne the likeness of the earthly man; 1 Corinthians 15:49(NIV) and nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out; for what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Romans 7:18-19(NIV)

I have a law at work within the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members; Romans 7:23(NIV) so that when I want to do good, evil is right there with me, Romans 7:21(NIV) and most easily entangles me. Hebrews 12:1(NIV)

My whole head is injured, my whole heart afflicted; from the sole of my foot to the top of my head there is no soundness – only wounds and welts and open sores. Isaiah 1:5-6(NIV)

There is in me a determination to turn from the living God: Hosea 11:7(NIV) My heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9(NIV) It starts aside like a faulty bow. Hosea 7:16(NIV)

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Method for Prayer NIV First Person

Lament and Confess your Vain Thoughts and Carnal Affections

Confession 2.4 | NIV

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 inclination of the thoughts of my heart is evil, only evil, and that all the time, Genesis 6:5(NIV) and it has been so from my childhood. Genesis 8:21(NIV)

O how long have I harbored wicked thoughts! Jeremiah 4:14(NIV) Those schemes of folly which are sin! Proverbs 24:9(NIV) From within, out of the heart, come evil thoughts; Matthew 15:19(NIV) which plot mischief on the bed, Micah 2:1(NIV) and carry the heart with the fool’s eyes to the ends of the earth. Proverbs 17:24(NIV)

But God is not in all my thoughts; Psalm 10:4(NIV) it is well if he is in any of them. I have deserted the Rock, who fathered me, and have forgotten the God who gave me birth: Deuteronomy 32:18(NIV) I have forgotten him days without number, Jeremiah 2:32(NIV) and my heart has followed worthless idols and become worthless itself. Jeremiah 2:5(NIV) My inward thought having been that my house will remain forever; Psalm 49:11(NIV) this my way is my folly. Psalm 49:13(NIV)

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

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

I have clung to worthless idols and forfeited the grace that could have been mine; Jonah 2:8(NIV) have forsaken the spring of living water, for cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:13(NIV)

I have panted after the dust of the ground, Amos 2:7(KJV) and have been full of care as to what I shall eat and what I shall drink and what I shall wear, the things which the pagans run after, and the righteousness thereof. Matthew 6:31-33(NIV)

I have lifted up my soul to idols, Psalm 24:4(NIV) and set my eyes on what is nothing; have fixed my eyes on what is seen, which is temporary, but the things that are eternal have been forgotten and postponed. 2 Corinthians 4:18(NIV)