I gave an example in my last post of people trying to share Christ in ways that might invite unnecessary trouble. If I heard somebody tell an unbeliever that, "If you become a Christian, all of your problems will be over," I would have a strong urge to contradict them. While I agree that trusting in, clinging to and relying on Jesus to save us from our sins so that we can live eternally with Him is absolutely wonderful, I think life can be very hard whether someone is a Christian or not. If you're a Christian, you can probably bank on some problems.

One of the things a pastor of mine told me years ago when I took a discipleship course for a couple of months was that salvation was free, but that discipleship could be very costly. I've never forgotten that, and when I get prompted by my conscience to do something godly that has consequences, I try to remember that any fear I have of those consequences are unfounded.

I remember a friend telling me about plane flight back to the U.S.A. from the U.K.. He's an ex-jock Christian in good shape who I'm guessing weighs in at 220 or so. He was seated next to a complete stranger and had his open Bible on his tray table. This person was curious about why he had a Bible and why he was reading it. The opportunities don't come much more made-to-order folks. He immediately got the butterflies flitting around his stomach and was a little bit afraid of a possible confrontation. The person inquiring of him was a 17 year-old girl. (Laughing here)

I guess these days one might have good reason to avoid any conflict on an airplane, but he overcame his feelings of nervousness and joked to me, "What was she gonna do? Hit me?" We laughed about that together, and he had gone on to have a great conversation with this girl, whom we hope inquired further into this most important matter.

The Christian walk is jam packed with growth and with struggles. I wonder, do we really ever reach the point where we don't struggle? Paul addressed this in Galatians 5:16 and 17, when he said:
16 "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."

The central issue about struggle is learning to walk in sensitivity and obedience to the Holy Spirit. There are those people with a faith you'd love to have, that seem like they've gained complete victory over life altering bad habits and patterns in their lives, and very quickly. For most of us though, it's a struggle that takes place through the course of our lives.

I think one of the reasons people struggle is that they don't rely on the Lord totally for their peace and happiness, but instead try to find satisfaction in things or experiences that are actually apart from Him. That just never works. Life just doesn't work well if He isn't at the center of everything in it and if we haven't made Him our number One love. If things are arranged any other way, they may seem right for a while, but they eventually fall apart.

He's the object of our faith and our source of life, and instead of being sensitive to His leading, Christian often people look for some sort of quick fix for their problems. We end up getting broken, (hopefully) because instead of delivering us from our problems, letting us "off the hook," our loving Father guides us back to our root issue, that we need to be seeking His face, and a deeper, more meaningful walk with Him as He reigns in our life and brings it into order. The thing is, this often takes time and is something that needs to be constantly evaluated.

His Word is so important to us in being able to walk with Him in faith, and Psalm 119 is a great place to meditate. That whole Psalm is about the importance of, and the empowering work of God's Word. When you read it, it's like one prayer after another about how God uses His word in a believer's life. 119:45 says, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek your precepts."

That's a pretty wonderful state to be in. Read the prayer in verses 37 and 38, "Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, And revive me in Thy ways. 38 Establish Thy word to Thy servant, As that which produces reverence for Thee." There are a wealth of wonderful verses in this Psalm and if you, as we all have, are struggling with something, I would strongly encourage you to pray many of them to God as you read through them and meditate on them.

Peace in His name, David.