Am I the only one who sometimes is tempted to feel unworthy to pray?

Am I the only one who sometimes is tempted to feel unworthy to pray?

When I think of my sinfulness, my mistakes, my guilt, I am tempted to feel overwhelmed. Why would the Lord ever bother to answer me--or even listen to me?

Maybe you never have battles with temptation like this; if so, then just don't bother to listen to me.

But if you never have such battles, I am not sure that you are so lucky after all; maybe you need to make sure that your feet are on a solid foundation of objective truth, not just on emotional feelings. When I am so tempted to doubt, I must remember what Jesus says in John 6:37, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." He doesn't say anything about feeling or being worthy to "come." Simply, if I come, He won't slam the door in my face or kick me down the steps. There's something good I must believe, first.

In fact, what happens is that He always encourages me, shows me a little light glowing at the end of my tunnel. You may say you never see such light; well, you can see what Christian saw in Pilgrim's Progress--he saw one place that was not quite as dark as all the rest. And then Evangelist said, "Keep that in your eye; so shall you find the Gate."

Jesus tells you (and He doesn't require you to be perfect before He promises this to you): "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and His rule. ... You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourself proud owner of everything that can't be bought." (That's some of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 in the Peterson rendition). Yes, get on your knees and stay there long enough. There's Good News for YOU!