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The only title I can think of it terrible..so I'll keep it to myself.
I received a great reminder tonight: being a believer is not supposed to be easy. Paul told us that, "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."(Book of Acts...somewhere in Chapter 14, right around when he got stoned. Yeah, that happened...ouch.)
It's not that I expect it to be easy. But sometimes, I feel like it's too hard. Like I'm a terrible Christian because it's hard. I forget that it's supposed to be hard. It's when it's easy that I'm probably doing things wrong, hat I need to take a step back and look at where I'm becoming complacent or lazy.
Because it's supposed to be hard.
It's so, so true that comparison steals joy. I am constantly guilty of comparing myself to other Christians, saying, "Gosh, they're so good at this whole thing. I'm so terrible at it. They must be a better Christian than I am! Hurry, act like I'm a good Christian so that they don't find out I totally stink at this!" The truth is, we're all bad Christians and we're all good Christians, every single one of us, all the time. I, along with every other human, will constantly fall short in every possible way. Which is where Jesus steps in, filling in the gaps, perpetually forgiving my errors, and overall shoring me up with eternal grace. By pretending that I can be perfect all by myself, I steal from the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made. I forget that I need God and try to do everything on my own, which is when things really get hard.
I want to revel in the hardships, because that's when I realize how much I need God. In addition, it's when we work hard that we realize what matters and what doesn't. Nothing easy is worth it in the end.
It's not that I expect it to be easy. But sometimes, I feel like it's too hard. Like I'm a terrible Christian because it's hard. I forget that it's supposed to be hard. It's when it's easy that I'm probably doing things wrong, hat I need to take a step back and look at where I'm becoming complacent or lazy.
Because it's supposed to be hard.
It's so, so true that comparison steals joy. I am constantly guilty of comparing myself to other Christians, saying, "Gosh, they're so good at this whole thing. I'm so terrible at it. They must be a better Christian than I am! Hurry, act like I'm a good Christian so that they don't find out I totally stink at this!" The truth is, we're all bad Christians and we're all good Christians, every single one of us, all the time. I, along with every other human, will constantly fall short in every possible way. Which is where Jesus steps in, filling in the gaps, perpetually forgiving my errors, and overall shoring me up with eternal grace. By pretending that I can be perfect all by myself, I steal from the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made. I forget that I need God and try to do everything on my own, which is when things really get hard.
I want to revel in the hardships, because that's when I realize how much I need God. In addition, it's when we work hard that we realize what matters and what doesn't. Nothing easy is worth it in the end.
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