Psalm 109:21  
But deal well with me, O Sovereign Lord, for the sake of your own reputation! 
Rescue me because you are so faithful and good. (NLT)

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Here’s a good way to pray. Ask God to hear and answer your prayer based on his faithfulness and goodness, and not yours. 

I’m pretty sure I can’t be good enough long enough to deserve for God to hear and answer my prayers the way I want. My motives are often good, but not great. God’s motives are entirely different. They are always good, and always great. They always align with his faithful love and essential goodness. What he wants for me is better than anything I will ever desire for myself. 

Wise prayer, then, is based on his faithfulness and goodness, and not mine or yours. 

When God deals well with us, it helps people see how good and kind he is. 

When God rescues us, it helps people see how merciful and gracious he is. 

It gets better.

Our Sovereign God has a well-earned reputation for taking fickle and foolish people like us and using us in such a manner that people see us not as paragons of virtue, but as trophies of God’s grace. (See Ephesians 2:10.)

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I will pray based on God’s faithful love and goodness.

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O Sovereign God, only a faithful and good Father like you could love such a mess like me and turn my problems and pains into something beautiful, something good. You are the glorious and loving rescuer of broken people. You are the merciful and kind renovator of messed-up lives. You provide the salvation we are lost without, the provision we are destitute without, the hope we are helpless without. LORD, you are good, and your mercy endures forever. Hallelujah and amen!