My son and I are memorizing the Westminster Catechism for Homeschool and we've just finished the question that asks, "What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?"   The answer is so countercultural but so God-centered and Biblical!  The memorized response is, "All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under His wrath and curse, and so made  liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever."  This misery is what we must realize before we are saved and also before we approach the throne of grace in supplication and pleading for mercy after we're saved.  So many times we go to the Almighty God flippantly, not taking into account our sinfulness and the fact that we don't even deserve to be heard, much less answered.  Our prayers become almost thoughtless chants and memorized repetitions which brings no glory to God. (Matt. 23:14)   Each time we stop to pray, we should stand in awe and be continually and completely amazed that a perfect, righteous, holy and supremely powerful God takes the time to listen to our little requests.  What we tend to forget in our present saved condition is the misery and darkness from which we were rescued. 

"For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1:13-14)

"Without misery in the object, there can be no exercise of mercy.  To suppose mercy without supposing misery, or pity without calamity, is a contradiction: therefore, men cannot look upon themselves as proper objects of mercy, unless they first know themselves to be miserable; and so, unless this be the case, it is impossible that they should come to God for mercy...They must be sensible that the guilt of sin makes them miserable creatures."

                                                                                                    Jonathan Edwards