The Struggle is Real…

I’m sure there have been times when you have wondered why your life is such a struggle. Perhaps you long for endless days without resistance in which you can enjoy long stretches of smooth roads where all of the obstacles have been removed for you. Maybe you don’t like conflict and look for a time when things come easy and without a fight. Possibly you’re just tired of the friction in life and long for some future day where the going will be effortless. But, sadly maybe, the struggle is real and though it is not ideal, there is something you can do about it. Until the day those promised, ideal conditions arrive, you have to learn how to fight; who you are fighting against and how to win… Welcome to the great competition of life.

It might surprise you to know that God never intended for life to be such a struggle. In man’s original state, life was gloriously simple. Everything man touched prospered and succeeded abundantly. There was no death, no sickness, no fear and no sin. But man, with his freedom of will, turned his rights and privileges over to God’s enemy. Ever since that fateful day, man had an opponent in the spiritual realm, working in conjunction with many other evil spirits, to make life as miserable for man as possible. Whether you believe it or not, this is the source of every difficulty; every defeat; every horrible thing that ever happened to you! But, this negative spiritual energy called darkness, is hidden from your five-senses awareness. The secret to his success is the secrecy of his moves. Many people laugh at the notion that there is a “devil” seeking to work them woe, dismissing it as foolishness and uninformed beliefs. Yet, they suffer by the same hand. Others refusing to accept the truth, attribute it all to God (who is light and in Him is no darkness at all). Then, in their own insanity, attempt to make “good” reasons for the tragic events that unfold in people’s lives, explaining away abuses and torture as serving some higher, unseen purpose. Both remain sorely misled and as such unable to fight back. The first step in winning in the struggle is to know who you are fighting against. You have to call a spade a spade. If whatever happened to you caused you grief, broke your heart or caused you to suffer in any capacity, it was not from God. The prospect that it came from evil may be frightening to you, but it is the reality. Every cancer, every disease, every sickness in every form came as a result of this same force, either directly or indirectly. The suffering you have endured does not mean that you are evil, but rather that evil exists and that God wants you to learn how to overcome it. God does not, as some have said, need evil in order to produce good. You don’t have to hit rock bottom to finally achieve success, no more than you have to touch the hot burner on the stove to know it is hot. Bad experiences do not have to precede good experiences. It is the truth of God’s Word that enables you to overcome and there is no other way…

Once you are very clear from whence your trouble originates, next you have to learn how to compete; how to fight back; how to win. First, you ain’t going to do it on your own. You and your own brain using your own wisdom and your own experiences ain’t going to get the job done. (Read that again) Your opponent has been using human logic against unsuspecting victims for thousands of years. Oh you think you can figure it out? The consideration of evil is the furtherance of evil. (Read that again, again) The more you consider trouble, the more trouble you will have to consider. Error is so complicated, so tricky, so well thought out that you on your own will be no match for it. It isn’t what you think or what you feel or what you know, but rather what does God say? God’s Word in its inherent and inerrant perfection is the only thing that cuts through the darkness, through the deceptions and gets right down to the heart of the matter. You win the struggles with God’s Word. God never promised this life would be without struggles, but He did promise that you can win in every situation. You aren’t big enough to do it on your own. But, with God’s help and with God’s Word you are more than big enough. Often your real problem has absolutely nothing to do with what you think your real problem is. That’s why your problem remains. In order to win you have to submit yourself to something bigger than yourself. You don’t turn yourself over as many erroneously report. Instead you submit your own stubborn five-sense reasoning to God’s Word and simply find those promises that apply and apply them. Don’t say what you feel like or what it looks like or what it seems like. Say what God’s Word says.

At the end of the day, nobody including myself, enjoys the struggle. I’d much rather not fight. But, like the kid who gets his lunch money stolen every day, at some point you gotta stand up for yourself and fight back. It is bad enough that you have to wrestle at times, but even worse if you end up succumbing and suffering every day or worse for your whole life. Life is NOT random as is common to say, but rather everything happens for a reason with many of those reasons being your spiritual opponent. Haven’t you suffered long enough? Aren’t you tired of the misery and frustration? Aren’t you sick of not knowing what the hell is going on? Well, my friends, you can know if you want to know. Oh sure you are still going to get stung at times. You are going to get knocked on your ass occasionally. But, you can get better at seeing it coming and even better at overcoming it, whatever it is. You don’t need me to tell you the struggle is real, but the victory is just as real as well once you learn how to access the answers. Yes, the struggle is real, but so is God. Get back up and fight! Fight!!!

Just some good thoughts…