We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
Dearest Believer,
My faith journey, like possibly your own, began with a step. No matter what lay behind in our lives before Christ, we are promised in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”(ESV). It is like Christian in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress letting go of his burden and feeling light and new.
“Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said, with a merry heart, ‘He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.'”
We are eager to start our new life!
Then…why is it so hard?
First of all, believer, I just want to acknowledge the fact that it IS hard. And it is for a couple of reasons that I have found.
Firstly, we now belong to Christ and His Holy Spirit is now alive in us.
This truth allows us to see things differently than before. In other words, we now love what God loves and hates what God hates; namely, sin. We now have what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance” and what Paul describes in Romans 7:15-19, when he does what he doesn’t want to do, and doesn’t do what he would like to do. We struggle because we are different now. At the moment of salvation, we belong to God, we are His children. We have His Spirit, so presently there is a war raging within us to fight our flesh and live in the Spirit. We can echo Paul’s words, “Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24)
Secondly, since we are now Christ’s followers, we will be enemies of the world. They will not understand us, but mock us, put us down, or dismiss us. There are many places in scripture in which this fact is made clear.
John 15:18-19,17:14-16 states, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Thirdly, we will have tests. 1 Peter 1:6 states, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In our lives as believers, every day is filled with the testing of our faith. These are opportunities to step either closer in our walk with the Lord or further away. Our goal is to always strive toward the goal of a more intimate relationship with our Savior.
In addition, the choices we make and the consequences thereof, before coming to Christ don’t just magically go away. We must now face those consequences. But take heart, believer, it is now with the power of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, as well as His strength. We will get tested with ungodly behavior, frustrations, anger and temptation. But that first step, becomes two, becomes three, and many more in your walk with the Lord. Every day, even every moment, realize this is a step in faith, trust and obedience. Every day, God gives us His grace and strength to walk with Him in confidence. Because we are not confident in ourselves, but in the God who called us and works for us both to “ will and to work for his good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
The Lord be with you,
Bianca
