Struggle

In our North American context, failure and struggle are often viewed as problems, jagged detours on what is supposed to be the smooth, straight road of life. It's a distinctly Western phenomenon, but one that subtly impacts our Christian perceptions.  Chuck DeGroat


For some reason, those of us who follow Jesus have bought into the above statement at one time or another in our life of following Jesus. Sadly, many stay in the mindset of the above quote.There are those who have come to find out that even though you are a  follower of Jesus your life will still have struggle. But even then those people can fall back into the above mindset, if the struggle goes on too long.

What makes it so hard for us to accept that struggle is a part of life? Why do we think that if we begin to follow Jesus with our lives that there should be no more struggle? If we fail to see that struggle is a part of life we will come up with all kinds of untrue explanations. Worse yet, we will have to hear the opinions of those who don't believe there should be any struggle in the Christian life.

See if you have heard any of these statements before;
"There must be some sin in your life"
"I'm not saying you are possesed, but you may have an evil spirit oppressing you"
"You just aren't exercising enough faith to get out of your situation"
"If you were more committed to Jesus, this wouldn't be going on in your life'
"This is probably a generational curse passed down from your great, great, great grandparents"
The list could go on and on.

Now let me say, I believe all of the above statements can happen in a person's life and be the reason as to why they are experiencing struggle. But I believe as followers of Jesus, that we aren't to just throw out ideas like these and go down our "list" on someone. Imagine the damage you could do to a person who is really struggling with something and then you just throw out one of the above statements without really knowing the person's situation. You could make the situation worse. Sadly, many want to feel as though they are "spiritual" and will throw out the above solutions quickly, rather then taking the time to get to know the person and their situation.

I think at the root of the situation is that we are uncomfortable with struggle. Obviously we don't like it in our lives, but we are also uncomfortable in seeing it in someone else's life. So we try to come up with a quick fix.

I was reading recently in the Book of Acts where the apostle Paul was telling the people that even though the Prophets, the Books of Moses, etc... had been read regularly in the synagouges, yet the people didn't recognize who Jesus was when He came and they had Him crucified. Think about that, they had been reading for hundereds of years about a Messiah to come, and when He came they didn't recognize Him.

Well, those of us who are followers of Jesus have the Bible to read. Isn't it interesting that in just about every story in the Bible, and in just about every person who we get some detail about their lives, there is struggle. Think of it, Abraham, Joseph, David, Peter, Paul, and the list could go on and on. All of them had struggles and not all of those struggles were the result of them doing something "wrong". Yet, we somehow can believe that there is something not right about experiencing struggle even though everyone in the Bible experienced it. Aren't we just like the people that Paul spoke about in Acts, just in a different way?

We have difficulty with struggle many times because at the heart of the matter, we think we can control God. When struggle comes we have to realize that we aren't in control. If times are good we look at what we are doing, our actions, and we think we have somehow found a way to please God and with that some way in that we are controlling Him. But, when struggle comes we have a hard time excepting it because we haven't changed our actions, so our thought process is why did the struggle come? Which then can lead to the realization that we aren't in control, which means we aren't in control of God. We would never admit it, but deep down many of our actions are ways of trying to see if we can manipulate God. We want to find God on our terms, but He wants it on His terms.

Struggle is a part of life. For some reason we have trouble with this truth. Struggle is going to come even when you are living a life that is pleasing to God. Sometimes the struggle is a result of wrong actions on our part. When we realize what we have done that was wrong, let's adjust our lives accordingly. Struggle can be the result of the enemy,of our souls, at those times we have to rely on God and fight. Remember though, not every struggle is the result of you or I or some other person doing something wrong. Let us not be hasty in jumping to wrong conclusions. It can lead to more harm than good.

 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to  Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
 Acts 14:21,22


 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
 Psalm 34:19

Troy

Musings from John 15:12-17

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

John 15:12

I love verses that show us how much God loves us, I'm sure you do to. They are encouraging and it is amazing to think of how much Jesus loves us.

In this verse Jesus is teaching us, or should I say commanding us to love others just as He has loved us. Ouch!!!! I don't know what you think, but this is one of those verses that is hard to live out. But let's remember, Jesus commanded it, so it must be possible in some way. Let's love others the way Jesus loved us. And yes, that includes those who we feel are unloveable.
 
 
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Jesus continues to develop the thought on commanding us to love others as He has loved us. Jesus shows us the ultimate way to show this love. Though we may never be called to "lay down our lives" we can still lay down or lay aside our agendas, our expectations, our plans, for our friends. Let us remember that Jesus showed us His great love for us by laying down His life for us.


You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

John 15:14,15

Probably at least once in our lives we have referred to someone as our friend to try and impress someone. When it comes to Jesus, I am not surprised that I want to call Him friend. What amazes me, is that He calls us His friends.

Jesus teaches us in these verses that He wants us to do what He commands. Jesus also revealed to the disciples the things the Father was telling Jesus. Today the Holy Spirit reveals to us what God is saying.

Let's go out today remembering that Jesus call us friends. As we here from the Holy Spirit, let's obey Jesus' commands.
 
 
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give it to you.

John 15:16

Let us think on one truth from this verse; you and I were chosen by Jesus. I can grasp me... wanting to choose Him, I cannot grasp Him wanting to choose me. Yet He did choose us. Ready for another mind blowing thought ? He didn't wait for us to be "worthy" or "good enough" to choose us. He chose us as we were. He also teaches us that He appointed us to go and bear fruit with our lives, and that that fruit would remain. As we abide in Him and our lives bear fruit we will begin to know what is on God's heart and when we ask for it in Jesus' name it will be given.

Although all you may see of yourself is your faults and failures, remember, you were chosen by Jesus!!!
 
 
This I command you, that you love one another.

John 15:17

This is the second time in John 15 that Jesus has commanded to love one another. Jesus had said in John 13:35," By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another". Loving others shows the world Christlikeness. The world has seen people saying they believe certain truths, they have seen people be "religious", but nothing impacts or makes an impression on someone like love. The Apostle Paul said in 1st Corinthians 13 that without love we are nothing.

Let's follow the example and command of Jesus and love each other. And when it gets really hard to do let's ask Jesus for His power to be able to love others because we can't do it in our own strength.
 
Troy