If you are struggling. Keep struggling.
It’s better than not struggling.
Better than giving in.
Better than giving up.
Everyone struggles. There is no way around it. You have struggled, are struggling, and will struggle.
It’s called life.
And contrary to some Christian teachers today, becoming a Christian does not exempt you from struggles.
Our struggles are with circumstances. With sin. With ourselves.
The problem today is that too often we look at our circumstances and say:
I can’t change anything. This is my lot in life.
So we just accept our circumstances.
We look at our sin and say:
What I am doing is not that bad. Heck, what I am doing shouldn’t be a sin.
And many times we draw a line in the sand, saying I will not cross this line and do that and then we cross it and we draw another line and cross it and draw another line and cross it and draw another line and cross it and draw another line and cross it and soon we have drawn so many lines we can’t even look back and remember where we started.
So we just accept our sin (we don’t even call sin sin anymore).
We look at ourselves and say:
This is just who I am. I am me and there is no need to change.
So we just accept who we are and never look to improve or change…because I can’t change my circumstance and I can’t change my sin, so why change who I am.
We have become too accustomed to giving in too easily.
At the first sign of trouble or struggle, we give up.
But we need to struggle. We need to fight.
If you are struggling with something, keep struggling. Don’t be concerned or depressed or disillusioned if you are struggling with a circumstance or a sin or yourself.
That’s a good sign.
If you are struggling and kicking through something, that means you recognize that there is something better.
It is when you stop struggling and just accept things that there needs to be concern.
It means you have given up or given in.
And as Christians we are called to not give up or give in to the world around us or the sin within us.
The Apostle Paul says we are to press on to our goal. And our goal is Jesus.
Jesus has overcome the world.
If Jesus has overcome the world – and we have Jesus – we can overcome our circumstances, our sin, ourselves.
Paul says we are to press on.
He says we are to strain forward.
We are to struggle.
And in that struggle we will win.
We lose when we don’t struggle. When we don’t press on. When we don’t strain forward.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV)
Keep struggling.
Keep straining.
Keep fighting.
You may lose some battles, but you will win the war.
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