Take Christ first, before you think of doing anything else: did He not say, “Without Me you can do nothing”? So, then, all you do without Him is sheer nothing, however pious and noble it may appear in the eyes of men.
Is He not the Alpha, and is not the Alpha the first letter? Then do not try to put a letter before it; do not say to yourself, “I will try to obtain a true recognition of my sins, and then I will go to Jesus to obtain salvation.” This is beginning with the Z instead of with the Alpha. By doing so, you make yourself like the fool who said, “I will learn to swim first and then I will go in the water.” Do you want to know your sins truly? Who is to give you that knowledge but Christ? Do you want to become better and more heavenly-minded? Who can give you that godly disposition of heart but Christ?
Indeed, everything you want is within the sheepfold of God; but how can you get within except through the door which is Christ? “I am the door,” He said: “by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
Rev. James Guthrie