All your wickedness before Him.

"Spread all your wickedness before him, and do not plead your goodness; but plead your badness, and your necessity on that account: and say, as the psalmist in the text, not “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is not so great as it was,” but, “Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”

Jonathan Edwards

WLC 185

 WLC 185  How are we to pray?

A. We are to pray with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins; with penitent, thankful, and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency, love, and perseverance, waiting upon him, with humble submission to his will.

Our attitude or disposition in prayer ought to be characterized by a reverent recognition of God’s majesty & our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2; Luke 18:9-14), repentant and thankful hearts (Philippians 4:6; 1 Samuel 1:15; 2:1), sincere and devoted affections (Mark 11:22-24; James 1:5-8), and a persevering confidence and patience (Isaiah 62:6-7; Luke 18:1-8).  

Two Pastoral Problems

“Wherefore, there are two things hard and difficult in this case:— “1. To convince those in whom sin evidently has the dominion that such indeed is their state and condition. “They will with their utmost endeavor keep off the conviction hereof. Some justify themselves, some excuse themselves, and some will make no inquiry into this matter. “It is a rare thing, especially of late, to have any brought under this conviction by the preaching of the word, though it be the case of multitudes that attend unto it. “2. To satisfy some that sin has not the dominion over them, notwithstanding its restless acting itself in them and warring against their souls; “yet unless this can be done, it is impossible they should enjoy solid peace and comfort in this life. “And the concernment of the best of believers, while they are in this world, does lie herein; for as they grow in light, spirituality, experience, freedom of mind and humility, the more they love to know of the deceit, activity, and power of the remainders of sin. “And although it works not at all, at least not sensibly, in them, towards those sins wherein it reigns and rages in others, “yet they are able to discern its more subtile, inward, and spiritual actings in the mind and heart, to the weakening of grace, the obstructing of its effectual operations in holy duties, with many indispositions unto stability in the life of God; which fills them with trouble.”

 — John Owen 

Sinclair Ferguson’s paraphrase: “There are actually only two pastoral problems you will ever encounter.

“The first is this: persuading those who are under the dominion of sin that they are under the dominion of sin. That’s the task of evangelism. “And [second], persuading those who are no longer under the dominion of sin that they are no longer under the dominion of sin because they are Christ’s.” — Sinclair Ferguson

Rest in Jesus

 You have, perhaps, dear reader, long been in want of the assurance that you are saved. But you have sought it in yourself, and not in Christ.

You have been searching for evidence amid the shadows and the taint of your own heart, the imperfect traces of your own doings, the varied exercises of your mind, and have sought them in vain. But now try the experiment―an experiment that has never failed one poor soul―of finding the evidence of your present salvation in a believing looking to a present Savior. Rest in Jesus from the burden and the guilt of sin; rest in Jesus from the conflict with doubt and fear; rest in Jesus from the fear of death and the dread of condemnation; rest in Jesus from your entire self; rest in His finished work, in His accepted sacrifice, in His boundless grace, in His unchanging love, and present intercession and your assurance will be built upon a rock, against which no force of Satan or unbelief shall ever prevail. Octavius Winslow (From Grace to Glory, p. 89)

I am His child still

 Though I may have backslidden... yet I have only to go back to my Father, and say, “Father, I have sinned,” and I am his child still, and he will fall upon my neck and kiss me, and I shall yet sit at his table, and hear music and dancing, because he that was lost is found.

--Spurgeon.

(I wish people would cite the source, I assume quotes are of the authors, though I don't know the bibliography of when and in what sermon/book it was said.)

Best Efforts Marred

 Our best efforts are marred with imperfect performance and impure motives. But God "sees" the righteousness of Christ He has imputed to us.

Jerry Bridges

Hope in God

 When we wonder what God is doing, we need to talk to ourselves:

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" While not denying the harsh reality of our circumstances, we preach to ourselves a simple message: Hope in God. We put our hope in God when the pain is chronic, or the illness is incurable, when the persecution is unavoidable, or the relationship has turned poisonous. We put our hope in God when the days are oppressively gray, and sadness has set in like a thick fog, hiding all from view. We put our hope in God when the horror of sin overwhelms like a tsunami, when the foundations of society begin to crumble, and we fear for what the future might hold, when we begin to feel our own mortality with the passing of the years. We put our hope in God, remembering that “if He smiles on us, it is enough, though the whole world should be against us.” From The Heart Taken Up: 90 Days with the Puritans by Stephen Yuille — a 90-day devotional drawing on the richest Puritan writers to move truth from the head to the heart.