One of the biggest mistakes we can make in worship, reflection, prayer, and study is to think of what we do for the Lord as something significant. We treat devotion like a contribution, as though the hours given to Him somehow tip a scale in our favour. But what exactly do we imagine we are contributing to Him? The Word will not let us keep that comfort for very long.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen (Jude 1:24–25, NKJV).

What we do is nothing, worthless, insignificant, not to be noted or cared for, when, or if, we find ourselves in His Presence. Jesus is the only One who keeps us from stumbling, and once we see that clearly, worship stops being a performance and becomes something closer to relief.

Imagine this: paralysed, unable to walk, with nothing to be done to fix it, however hard you try. But somehow, you are now able to walk up to the throne, and the reason is simple: someone carried and held you while you tried; no matter what you say or do, the fact remains that it is all thanks, all praise, and all glory to the one who helped you, because without them, you would still be lying in bed, unable to move.

That is us, and we should not soften it; we are utterly useless, unable to save ourselves from sin or pay our own debt, however much we might like to believe otherwise. What, then, is left for us to boast in, when even our best efforts amount to nothing at all? The flesh lashes out against the ways of God, craving to be right, craving to be satisfied in riches and comfort, craving to be self-focused instead of others-focused. It chooses to love self rather than the broken people around it, and nothing done in that state can fix it. There is no escaping our filthy state of sin, no matter how long we keep trying.

But one man comes and helps you walk out of filth into glory.

Jesus.

Remember this, and only this: it is His strength alone that allows you to enter the glory of God and to stand in the presence of the Almighty. Nobody else could have done it, and nothing else could have done it either.

Let this be the heart of our worship and prayer today, and every day that follows. May it become the only heart we know how to bring Him.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.