Preaching the gospel to your own discouraged self

"I am tempted to discouragement -- I look at myself and think: "This is as good as I can be after 35 years in Christ??!!" But then I ask the help of others and discover that they are the same! And then I am reminded by one of those others that my hope is not that I shall be well in this life -- but that Christ was well for me -- and that to be discouraged with myself is to have believed in myself -- and that is the opposite of the Gospel.

So, I need the Gospel. I need the reminder that I must have the blood of Christ and the Spirit of Christ to stand before God and to grow in sanctification. I need the double cure Toplady wrote of -- to cure me of sin's guilt and power. And not only do I need this -- so do my people. They battle the same sins -- they get discouraged by the same repeated patterns of wickedness in their hearts -- and they need to be reminded of the Savior's persistent and saving grace for them.

This is certainly not an excuse for sin -- it is a call to dependent killing of sin -- and not hoping in my growth for joy or life. My sin, in many ways, is a daily reminder of how desperately I need Christ. When I am least dependent I am most out of touch with reality." --These are comments from a pastor in San Diego