So far all of my posts have been pretty positive, or about what we should be as Christians. However I think it’s time for a reality check. Every Christian, now matter how long they have been walking with Christ, struggles with something on a daily basis. This is just the nature of being human in a fallen state. Now granted we do have the Holy Spirit to guide us, but we don’t always listen to what the Holy Spirit tells us.
Proverbs 20:9 – Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
I know that I have trouble with my heart everyday. We have to try to be like David, who was a man after God’s own heart. Even David sinned. I think that’s why he wrote this prayer in the Psalms:
Psalm 51:10 – Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Another thing I struggle with on a daily basis is my anger. I have always had a short temper, for as long as I can remember. Maybe this is because I grew up with so much anger and violence in my family. Maybe it’s just my heart. I don’t know exactly what causes me to anger so easily. It has been easier since I came to Christ, but I still find myself getting angry for little cause at times. This is especially hard and dangerous when you have kids. Children have a tendency to bring out the worst and the best in us. A child can provoke even the most patient man to anger. So much more for us who are easily angered. I have to be extremely careful not to lose my temper around my children, which at times can be extremely difficult. I have to be extremely careful not to end up like my father, who throughout my childhood always seemed angry, and lost his temper at the drop of a hat. I don’t want my children to grow up feeling the way that I felt.
I struggle everyday with reading my bible. Sometimes I let the things of the world distract me from what is really important, God’s Word. This is part of the reason I started this blog. To help keep me focused on what is important. To help me store up treasures in heaven and not on earth.
I struggle with intercessory prayer sometimes. It’s easy to pray for myself. We are all selfish in nature, and it’s easy to pray for ourselves. To pray for others can be difficult unless we are consciously aware of it. One thing I try to do when I pray is to make my prayers for myself the last thing I pray for if at all.
Spending quiet time with God is another thing I have trouble with. We live in such a fast paced world with so much stimulation. It can be hard to just stop everything, all the distractions and to listen for His Word in my heart, to rest in Him.
I struggle with helping my wife around the house sometimes. I have to consciously make myself help her with the housework sometimes. I know my wife appreciates it when I do help her out, especially here lately with her being pregnant and her chronic pain flaring up worse than it has before. This has kind of forced me to help with our son more on my days off as well. This can be hard to do especially after a long night at work.
These are some of the things that I struggle with on a daily basis. I can come up with more, however these are the most common, and hardest things to deal with for me. What do you struggle with in your walk with Christ?
My brother, your struggles are no different than my struggles … or for that matter, the struggles of all Christians whoever they may be, wherever they may be. Our specific sins may differ, but sins are the product of our sin nature…our flesh … and therefore, at root, we all have the same struggle.
It is important to remember that we ARE already God’s children if we have truly repented and accepted Him not just as our Saviour but as our Lord as well. Contrary to the easy grace/easy salvation teachers, you cannot have one without the other. And as His children we are safe and secure for all eternity…as long as we want Him, He will never let us fall utterly. Psalm 37:23-24 says “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.” (KJV) The NASB uses the literal translation “though he fall he will not be hurled headlong because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” Wow!
Never forget that while we are here in our flesh, our condition is different from our position. We have been translated into God’s Kingdom … but we do not possess it … YET. We shall … one day we shall truly be sons … but in reality we are still servants. Paul says in Galations 4 that a son –until he is an adult– differs nothing from a servant in his father’s house even though he is heir to all things. For me that concept answers why the New Testament refers to us many times as servants and many other times as sons. We may be “heirs of God, and joint–heirs with Christ” as it says in Romans 8:17, but we are still his servants –as it says in Romans 6:22 “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
This is all part of the progressive work God does in us. We are saved ..but we are being sanctified … and we shall be glorified. As someone once put it: We HAVE been saved from the penalty of sin … we ARE being saved from the power of sin … and we SHALL be saved from the presence of sin. Hallelujah! Lord, haste that day!
Remember one other thing, brother: It is finished! That’s what Messiah said on the cross– “It is finished.” He was referring to the work He had come to do … which was to finish the work of His Father who sent Him. (John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, AND TO FINISH HIS WORK.) Have you never noticed that God never said “It is finished” when He completed creation in Genesis? That is because He knew it wasn’t because He knew man would sin. This is evident from God’s omniscience. But is also proven by the fact that the plan of salvation was drawn up before the foundation of the world. Indeed, Christ is the Lamb who was ordained to be slain before the foundation of the world. (1Pe 1:20 “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” Rev 13:8 “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”)
What did the Son mean when He said it is finished? He meant that everything God intended had been finished. Everything was done. Nothing more is left to be done. What the bible reveals in Revelation is a foregone conclusion. There is no big battle for us. God has already won … as revealed to John in that heavenly vision. We need to remember that Jesus purchased not just our salvation, but our sanctification and glorification as well. There is nothing more for us to do.
We are to REST … in other words to trust Him that He has accomplished all that we will ever need. You do not have to fight your flesh. You just have to realize that Christ has already given you the victory over it. Instead of fighting, you just need to stand firm on God’s Word. Trust me (actually trust HIM) it works. That is true faith that will never be ignored by God. He will ALWAYS work in your life, producing that which is good. So many Christians concentrate on DOING. But I believe the bible teaches us that we are to be more concerned with BEING. There is nothing we can DO to BE better. If there were, then our will power, our strength of mind or purpose would have value … in other words, our flesh would have some role. But it doesn’t. It is all of grace. All of Him. And I can tell you as a man of 63 years of age who God saved out of the grossest of sin –oh amazing grace!!!– that what I have written is true. And it is good doctrine … because it IS the truth.
May God continue to lead you and draw you closer to Him. Your walk in just one year is yet another example of the awesome power of the Holy Spirit. And if sometimes you feel so far from Him, remember that the closer you draw to the Light, the more imperfections you are going to see. Just admit them to Him and ask HIM to deal with them. And then set your mind to obey everything He tells you to do and stop struggling. As the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to share with us in his epistle to the Hebrews: enter into His rest.
Love in Christ,
Another brother
I asked God for direction today. I prayed for His strength and His love to shine on me. As a result, I found this blog. Thank you. I have created a short cut on my desk top at my office and will check daily. I am struggling with faith and am greatly distracted each day from sing Jesus. I struggle with lust issues that even keep me from being intimate with my wife. I pray for guidance and patience from somewhere. I pray to feel the rest that you talk about in the blog. I here hte words and understand (so I think) the idea. I pray that it becomes my life so that I can have a peace and love for my family that only God can offer.