If we were honest about our Christian lives, wouldn’t we admit that we struggle more often than we show?
We struggle to answer the nagging questions.
We struggle to understand God’s will for our lives.
We struggle to understand and accept our purpose.
We struggle with where we fit in this world.
We struggle with making the right decisions.
We struggle with ourselves.
God honors your struggle.
Without struggle there is no growth.
I once saw struggle as a negative thing. I didn’t think there was any place for it in my life.
That all changed after two and a half years of working at a university in Beirut, Lebanon. When I initially made the decision to go to the University, I had so much confidence, but near the end, I began to struggle with the decision to stay or to go.
How could I leave the place where God had led me?
Would I find God anywhere else?
Would I be leaving God’s blessing?
The struggle of it all consumed me.
In the airport, as I waited to board my flight to Lebanon to pack my things and move back home, I sat on one of the lobby chairs and wrote:
“I’m at the airport, presumably preparing to board my last flight to Lebanon. I’m walking the halls, perhaps out of nostalgia, perhaps out of fear there won’t be more trips. In any case, it’s a struggle – this decision to go – to return home. It’s definitely a much harder decision than deciding to go to Lebanon the first time. Looking back, that decision was relatively easy.
Now, I feel indecision over a decision I’ve already made. In this very moment, I feel like I’m actively involved in a struggle – a struggle with myself, with God and with my emotions. A struggle with the way things are and the way I wish they would be.”
What are you struggling with?
What decision are you trying to make?
What bad habit are you trying to kick?
What are you trying to overcome?
Who are you trying to be?
Accept the struggle. Give in to the struggle.
The opposite of struggle is giving up, and without struggle there is no growth..
Struggle prevents you from being spiritually stuck.
Struggle prevents you from being spiritually apathetic.
Your weakness is revealed in the middle of the struggle, and God says His strength is made perfect in your weakness.