Today I am going to say a lot of tough stuff. You might have some wounds, we all do, but I am not going to try and make you feel better today, I’m going to try and make you understand, it might not be what you want to hear, but it is what you need to know. It is nothing new, it’s been there all along, but it’s been sugar coated and wrapped in ribbons.
People need to get real with each other. Christianity has been made to look effortless and completely free, like it will ask nothing of you, like it is a quick fix to your problems and a complementary ticket to paradise. This is complete nonsense and those who really believe this is living in denial.
A life with Christ, is breath-taking, mind-blowing, supernatural, radiating and extraordinary, but it is NOT easy, it is NOT effortless and if you are doing it just for the end prize, then you don’t even understand the first thing about what it is He really did for you. Christianity is hardcore and radical, anyone who gets in on it thinking it’s going to be easy will not last. Christians have been painted to be weak people, but real Christ loving people take the hard and narrow road when everyone else is on the highway. There is nothing weak about that.
Let’s look at Pauls life. 2 Corinthians 11: 24 – 28: “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” That is one hardcore, Christ loving guy if you ask me. Nothing smooth and simple about that.
This world is being tormented by persistent evil and Jesus paid the highest price so that your heart will not belong to it any longer, He made a way for you, He gave you a new home, but for now, you are a stranger with a target on your back. Take up your Armor and stand firm, because the One who is within you, is greater than the one that is in the world. What He did for you was not easy, it was not effortless, and it surely was not pleasant.
Paul walked a long and hard road, and few knows suffering like Paul does. You must think, whatever it was that he fought for, had to be worth it, right? It was and it is, because the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the grave, lives in you! The same God who split the sea for Moses, the same God who made everything come into existence with nothing but a command, it is the same God that you have on your side today. Not because you deserve it, but because He choose you, He loves you and He made a way to get you home.
It’s tough, that’s what it is, and don’t you let anybody tell you any different. It’s going to taste bitter some days, you are going to have to make some sacrifices sometimes, you will have to take a punch of two, maybe even more and you may bleed a little, but He overcame the world, so that whatever is outside, does not have the power to spoil what is inside anymore. Only you can let it. He is your peace in the storm.
In Matthew 7 we read about the man who built his house on the rock and the man who built it on the sand. This story teaches us that Jesus should always be our foundation and that if He is, that nothing could destroy us, but it also teaches us that the storms doesn’t only hit the foolish, it hits the wise as well. Know where you are grounded and face your storms head on. You might lose a battle, but you won’t lose the war, because that has already been won on your behalf.
It’s hard, but it’s worth it. Remember this, when the Israelites went through the dessert, it was in the hardest times that they got to see the hand of the Almighty in their midst. Paul said: (2 Corinthians 12:9-10) But he 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God bless,
Miryna van As