Dear Lord! You know that I cannot come before You on account of my own self, my presumption or my worthiness. Just as I might desire to look upon You, yet in the same way I would not be permitted to do so and would not even know how I might begin to pray. Nevertheless I do come before You because You Yourself have commanded it and You earnestly encourage that we should call upon You. You have even pledged a promise. You sent Your own Son, He who teaches us that we should pray, and You have promised to give us the words that we use in prayer. Therefore I know that such prayer indeed pleases You, and that my claim, that I may commend myself as a child of God before You, as great as that may seem, comes from the fact that I must obey You as You would have it. May I never inflict lies upon You and through other and greater sins trespass against You, thereby despising Your command and rejecting the gift of faith in Your promise. -Martin Luther
In a world that espouses pride, self-worth, and self-righteousness, it is so easy to forget my own unworthiness in the presence of my great and holy God. I so frequently bring Him down to my own level that I might claim understanding, and yet the beauty of His grace and power is that He is, in fact, so far above my understanding and that He is willing to stoop down and reveal just enough of Himself to allow me the privilege of knowing Him. May I never forget that God is God and I am not; I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting.
