Society has a tendency to make us believe that people who are strong, those who have it all together, they do not struggle. Sure maybe they have a bad hair day and it makes them flinch a little; but we believe they do not have any major internal turmoil. We start to think that since we struggle so much that we must be weak. We must be sub par people, and therefore sub par Christians.
We as Christians (especially us who are leaders) tend to go along with this persona. Mind you, we understand that struggle is a way of life. We know that as Christians we have two natures that struggle internally for control of our actions and our being. However, we want people to look at us as strong, good Christians. We want to be thought of as warriors of God, mighty men and women of valor and great courage. So we put up a front to make people think we do not struggle; we do them a serious injustice.
By not sharing our failures and our struggles we teach the idea of a struggle-free relationship with Christ. We cause people to believe that when we become Christians we are fully transformed; hard decisions and tasks in life are easy. This is not the case, as Christians we have deep internal struggle. Each day we must seek to resist our earthly selfish nature and live for Christ. A mature Christian should admit that he struggles, like the Apostle Paul did in his letter to the Romans.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Rom.
We all struggle. Hard decisions are not easy. Standing firm and going the extra mile are difficult tasks. We all struggle! We may not all struggle with the same thing but we all struggle. You are not alone in your struggles; some others do struggle with the same things (1 Cor. 10:13 ). There is not sin in the struggle itself, but the giving in to the struggle. Even Jesus struggled in His earthly body, though without sin (Matt 26:39, Luke 22:44 ).
When you struggle seek out God in prayer, read the scriptures, confide and be accountable to other Christians. We all struggle, but as Christians we are delivered from this “body of death” through Jesus. Oh, sweet Heaven! No more struggle, no more worry, no more sin!
Hang in there, you are not alone!
