Believe me, I get it. Life gets hard, challenges arise and sometimes you feel at a complete loss. Yet as a Christian, sometimes it seems even harder. It's almost as if there's this stigma about being a "struggling Christian", like it's "not allowed" making the struggle that much harder.
We are called to be real, to share our testimonies, our struggles and bring them to light. But when we are essentially subliminally being told that we as Christians aren't supposed to be struggling with sin, addictions, sexual temptations, profanity, etc. it makes it far more difficult to feel as if we are truly Christians during our struggle. Doubt sets in and the enemy's schemes begin. We doubt our faith, we doubt our God, we doubt our lives. We are destined for struggle, but as Christians it is our faith that brings us through.
As a Christian myself, I have gone through countless struggles that have rendered me feeling unable to share them, because I felt as a Christian that I "shouldn't be struggling with this." Sound familiar? 1 Corinthians 10:13 reads, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." I love this verse because it states that we will be tempted, but declares that there is a way out in God's name.
We're almost seen as weak when we struggle as a Christian. It's like the unbelievers cry out, "where is your 'God' now?" Maybe it's fear of judgment that keeps us silenced. Maybe it's shame or guilt. Despite this, we are to boast in our weaknesses. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul writes, "But he [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." The Bible is laden with scripture about Christians who struggled like Thomas and Peter, just to name a few. For example there was just to name a few. Boasting in my weaknesses, my failures, my struggles, doesn't bring light to my sin, rather it brings light to the Grace of God and His forgiveness, His healing, His power. In 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 it reads: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." We will go through trials, hardships, and struggles that make us doubt our faith and feel as if we are unworthy to be a Christian. Yet it is in those times we are to seek God the most and through that is when our stories, our testimonies are transformed from something with the main character being us. to the main character being God. "No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment." Isaiah 54:17. God gives us His promise when we give Him our heart.
Going through struggles as a Christian can be very difficult because sometimes we are the only Bible someone is ever going to "read". Billy Graham wrote a quote that reads, "We are the Bibles the world is reading; We are the creeds the world is needing; We are the sermons the world is heeding." We almost have this overwhelming pressure to live a perfect life when we put our image at the center of our life, rather than God. When we place ourselves in the center, of course our struggles overrule us, of course we try to hide them. We're not meant to suffer, we're meant to struggle and lean on God during the struggle. There's a difference.
Know that struggling as a Christian is as common as the grains of sand a the beach. You are not the only one struggling. Seek God in the struggle and let Him turn your test into a testimony.
