It is with our sins that we go to God, for we have nothing else to go with that we can call our own. This is one of the lessons that we are so slow to learn; yet without learning this we cannot take one right step in that which we call a religious life.
Bonar, H. (1881) How Shall I Go To God, 4-5
All too often, however, we’re running on empty because our view of God is empty.
Daniel Hames, Your Callings Are Too Big for You
If you have lingering sin in your life, or if you keep neglecting some good deed just because you have been waiting around to be saved without a fight, you are compounding your disobedience. God will never appear with power in your will in any other way than through your exercise of that will; that is, through your good resolves — your good intentions and plans and purposes.
So, people who believe in the sovereignty of God must not fear to engage their wills in the struggle for holiness.
John Piper, Good Works through Good Resolve
Semper Reformanda 