Where we err is, that we want to be something,
when we are nothing. We want in some way to
recommend ourselves to God, and do or be
something that we can be pleased with, and
which we think will therefore please Him.

It is very hard to learn . . .
  the depth of our spiritual poverty,
  the greatness of our sin, and
  our thoroughly lost, ruined, and helpless condition.

It is a great lesson, and yet a painful one, to be
made nothing; to feel one's self weaker than the
weakest, and viler than the vilest; to be a pauper
living upon daily alms, and to be made often to
beg, and yet sensibly to get nothing.

"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;
 of whom I am the worst." 1 Timothy 1:15

"I am less than the least of all God's people."
  Ephesians 3:8

"I am nothing." 2 Corinthians 12:11