Fear Not!

I have really been struggling lately with feeling like a failure in my Christian walk. I've been feeling like I'm fighting myself the whole way in trying to do God's will in my life and in trying to grow at all. However, I was greatly encouraged when I read this. Maybe it will encourage you as well:

"If any man compares his own soul to the picture drawn in the New Testament of what a Christian ought to be; if any man fixes his eye on the pattern of self-sacrifice, of purity, of truth, of tenderness, and measures his own distance from that standard, he might be ready to dispair. But fear not, because you are far from being like the pattern set before you, fear not because your faults are too painful to think of, continue the battle and fear not. If, indeed, you are content with yourself, and are making no endeavor to rise above the poor level at which you now stand, then there is reason to fear. But if you are fighting with all your might, fear not, however often you may have fallen, however deeply, however ungratefully, however inexcusably."
- Frederick Temple

Sometimes it feels like the harder I try to get closer to God, the worse I become as a person! But I've begun to realize that maybe that's not the case afterall. I think what's really happening is, that the closer I get to God, the more AWARE I am of what an awful person I am! The more AWARE I am of all the sin in my life and exactly what He did for me. If I can praise God and feel like the worst person in the world, then I believe I am making progress.

(Is this too personal? Have I gotten this page confused with my diary? haha! I just hope that maybe someone will stumble across this that might need to hear it, too.)