Trying to worship.
A call to worship.
Themes
Empty-handed worship • Prayer • Grace • Nothing to offer • Christ’s vicarious ministry • Human impossibility • Divine provision • Christ’s priestly life • Christ’s intercession • Participation in Christ’s ongoing life • Resting in Christ alone
Apart from God’s own grace, there’s really nothing we can offer God.
Scripture reading
Hebrews 4:14 Hebrews 13:15 Acts 17:28
This call to worship1 reminds us that we do not come to God by our own strength, or by our own words, or by our melodic voices. We come because Jesus Christ has already come for us. He lives our life before the Father, and by the Holy Spirit, we are gathered into His worship, His prayer, and His love. And so, we come to say our “Amen” to what Christ is already doing for us and among us.
The writer to the Hebrews wrote this: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Through him then let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. When Paul stood up in the Areopagus and preached to the Athenians, one of the things he said was: In Him we live and in Him we move and in Him we have our being.
Prayer
Father, We come empty-handed. We cannot pray as we ought, we cannot worship as You deserve, and apart from Your own grace, there’s really nothing we can offer You. So thank You, Father, that Jesus Christ has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. He lives for us. He prays for us. He worships You for us as our true and faithful human brother. So then, by Your Holy Spirit— the Spirit of Christ living in us— lift us into His life this morning— the one He is living for us. Let our songs, and our prayers, and our silence all be taken up into His perfect offering to You. We come not trusting in ourselves— not trusting in anything that we are offering— but resting in Jesus Christ, to whom we gladly say: Amen.
If we come to know God—truly know Him—it is because we have been drawn into his being. God is a relationship, and knowing Him means joining it. Go deeper. Enjoy this essay:
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians who gathered at Pathway Church in Beaverdam, Michigan, on February 8, 2026.