Following God Even When You Struggle

Following the river where ever it takes me.

Last night my wife and I sat down to dinner and talked about a calling to international missions in Spain.  We talked about our friends who our there, the people group we are going there to reach, and where our hearts are right now.  As we examined our own hearts, we realized that we have a long way to go in our walk with Jesus.  There are so many things we need to be doing and we always feel we could be closer to the Lord.  The thing that I have been realizing lately is that many people in many different stations of life including missions, ministry, and lay ministry feel exactly the same way.  The fact is that each Christian is a sinner saved by grace and each one of us will have our failures, temptations, and weaknesses in our Christian walk.

The real question is does this make us any less a child of God or any less able to serve as a child of God?  Well if our Christianity relied on our works or a consistently perfect relationship with Jesus, then I would say that many of us would be ineligible for in service for the kingdom of God and in imminent danger of hell.  The beauty of Jesus Christ is that our salvation rest solely on His actions.  We have been saved because He died with our sins on Himself and then rose again with the keys to hell because He lived a sinless life.  Our only input into the equation, is our repentance and acceptance of the salvation Jesus offers us.  "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believed in Him would have everlasting life."  John 3:16.    

So our Christian walks are completely hinged on the powerful works of Jesus.  Paul put it this way in Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."  Knowing this we can walk in strength because Jesus lives in us.  When we walk in Christ and fully trust in the grace He has imparted to us, we are able to find strength in our daily walk with Him.  In John 15:5 Jesus say, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing."  Even our love comes only from Him as is shown in 1 John 4:19, which says, "we love because God first loved us."

I hope that each of you will know that even in your struggles and failures, Jesus is still with you.  Each of us struggle with sin and temptation every day.  Even Paul, arguably one of the greatest evangelist in human history struggled with his daily walk, which is evidenced by Romans 7 where Paul firmly establishes his own wretched nature and inability to overcome the sin within himself.  Paul does not end with his wretchedness though he continues on into Romans 8 where we see the saving and transforming power of Jesus in us.  I love Paul's conclusion at the end of chapter 8 saying, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I say all this because the Lord is teaching me that He can use me for great things even with all my imperfections.  I, as a follower of Jesus, can no longer use the failings of my flesh as a reason I can't answer God's calling on my life.  None of us are perfect!  Yet through God's enormous grace, He still uses us for great things in His kingdom if we are faithful.  If the Lord is burdening your heart for a ministry (local, career, international, or otherwise) today, I hope you will find the courage and faith to accept His calling on your life today.  Trust Him who is faithful to give you everything you need to accomplish what He calls you to.  Stand up in faith and walk boldly for Jesus today, no matter where He leads you.  I leave you with the words of John saying, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Blessings,

Greg