Lesson 19: Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
www.bible.com/bible/59/psa.25

“O Lord, You who rule; if the righteous call upon You, You receive them. You are close to those who are of a broken heart. You comfort those who are of a contrite spirit. The offering that is acceptable to You is a contrite spirit. A broken heart You will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17).

“You sent forth Your beloved Son, anointed with Your Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18).

You came to comfort all that mourn, to give to them who mourn in Zion beauty for ashes. You give oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. You preached ransom to all who are heavy laden and with faithful hearts come to You. You invite all the thirsty to the waters of life. You bore all our sins upon the cross in Your own body, and our debt You blotted out by Your blood, even as Moses did before when he sprinkled unclean Israel with the blood of oxen and rams and with the ashes of the heifer. Under the law nearly all things were purified by the shedding of blood (Numbers 19; Hebrews 9).

If the figurative blood had such virtue that it could purify the flesh to sanctification, how much more shall the blood of the beloved Son, who offered Himself unspotted through the eternal Spirit, purify our consciences from dead works? O ever living God, through the merits of Your Son and through the riches of Your grace, we receive the remission of our sins.


O God of truth, with whom there is no lie, remember the words of Your prophet which he spoke in Your name, "If the wicked will turn from all his sins, that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him." (Ezekiel 18:21-22).

My unclean, sinful flesh afflicts me. My wicked nature wages war against me and besides, for Your word's sake, I have become an abomination, an outcast and a fable to all men. All who hear of me shake their heads at me. Without and within I have no peace. I say again, my sins combat me, my soul is in tribulation and pain. Therefore, dear Lord, I ask You not for gold and silver, for they can profit me nothing in the day of judgment, neither for long life, for they are always perverse. But this I desire alone of You with my whole heart, that You would look upon me, a miserable sinner, with the gracious eyes of Your mercy. In my affliction and pain comfort me with Your Holy Spirit, and forgive all my sins.