We pray because we are unworthy to pray. Our prayers are heard precisely because we believe that we are unworthy. We become worthy to pray when we risk everything on God's faithfulness alone.

If, therefore, you acknowledge that you have sin, if you tremble, if you are troubled by a feeling of God's wrath and by a horror of God's judgment and of hell, then have confidence. You are the one with whom God wants to speak, to whom God wants to show His mercy, and whom He wants to save.

For it is not possible to make the mercy of God large and good, unless a person first makes his miseries large and evil or recognizes them to be such. To make God's mercy great is not, as is commonly supposed, to think that God considers sins as small or that He does not punish them.

Love is blind, but a broken heart sees everything.

Sometimes people have come to a crisis of conscience, perhaps having lived much of their lives without any time for God, and have then tried to twist God's arm to be nice to them after all. That's a poor substitute for genuine worship and love of God — though God remains gracious and merciful, and ready to welcome people however muddled they may be.

Though we sing with the tongues of men and of angels, if we are not truly worshipping the living God, we are noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. Though we organize the liturgy most beautifully, if it does not enable us to worship the living God, we are mere ballet-dancers. Though we repave the floor and reface the stonework, though we balance our budgets and attract all the tourists, if we are not worshipping God, we are nothing.

The church is never more at risk than when it sees itself merely as the solution bearer and forgets that every day it must say, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner," and allow that confession to work its way into genuine humility even as it stands boldly before the world and its crazy empires.

Brokenness is not a feeling or an emotion. Rather it requires a choice, an act of will...not a one time experience, but an ongoing constant way of life. A lifestyle of agreeing with God about the true condition of my heart and life-not as everyone else thinks it is, but as He knows it to be.

Broken men and women don't care who finds out about their sin; they have nothing to protect and nothing to lose. They are eager for God to be vindicated. David's response when confronted with his wrongdoing was that of a humble, broken man. And his was the heart that God honored. Again and again, God's Word reveals that He is not as concerned about the depth or extent of the sin we commit as He is about our attitude and response when we are confronted with our sin.

You and I will never meet God in revival until we first meet Him in brokenness.

I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.

Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.