Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ezra, chapter 9, verses 5 and 6.

And of the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting,

with my garment and my cloak torn,

and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God,

saying, oh my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you.

What a scene.

The verses right before this talk about how Ezra hears the word of God.

He's trembling at the words of God and at how he and the people of God and even not just in his own life

or the people in that day, but the people of God in the days leading up to that day,

his predecessors among God's people, how they had turned from God's word, how they were not obeying God's word.

He hears these words from God.

He's convicted about sin and his life and the lives of the people of God around him.

And then he rises from his fasting, which we had talked about, prayed according to

yesterday in Ezra chapter 8,

with his garment and cloak torn and he falls on his knees,

spreads his hands out before God, and just starts to pray.

Oh, God, I'm ashamed and blush to lift my face to you.

What a powerful picture of a humble, right, contrite response to the word of God and conviction about sin in your own life individually and in the lives of the people of God

around you.

There's a weeping and a mourning over sin here, and I read this, and I just think,

how long has it been since I, since you responded to God's word like this

...