Years ago I met a guy who told me his goal was to lose a whole lot of weight. He was bordering on obesity and he was armed with a new resolve to shed pounds and replace it with muscle. This guy was always going to the gym to lift weights and he sipped on Creatine shakes all day. To demonstrate just how buff he was becoming, he would roll his sleeves up to reveal his upper arms and he made sure everyone knew that he was into working out.
There was only one problem. My friend wasn't losing any weight. No, it wasn't the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" issue. The fact was, he wasn't doing anything on the cardiovascular to burn calories and his food intake was just as big as ever. I'm sure there was some new muscle that he had added, but it was hard to see because he had done nothing to shed the pounds that he had set out to lose. My friend said he wanted to lose weight, but he wasn't willing to face his struggle head on and do what it would take to win.
Everyone of us has struggles that earnestly wish to overcome. Some desperately want to lose weight while others want to be more successful at work or school. Many are dealing with nagging issues or addictions that take over their lives. Almost everyone I've ever met with these kinds of struggles has possessed a strong desire to fight them and win. But not everyone does win, do they?
Here's the deal: You can identify a struggle in your life and hate it with all of your heart, but if you aren't fighting tooth and nail against it then it's not really a struggle at all. It's really more like an pet that you really don't want in your house but you are too preoccupied to boot it out the door.
If you are truly struggling in an area of your life - whether it's with a marriage that's failing, an addiction to pornography, your grades at school, self-image issues, etc. - then you will want nothing more than that struggle to be over. And if you want the struggle to be over, that means you want to conquer those things that are making your life miserable. And if you want to conquer something, that means it's time to fight.
Let me give you a word of encouragement. God knows your struggles. In fact, He knew that they would beat you down and pull you away from being the man or woman that He created you to be. That's why time and again God teaches us in the Bible that He is stronger and bigger and greater than anything that we could possibly face. This doesn't mean that you can just sit back and do nothing while God makes like easy-peasy for you. What it does mean is that when you are ready to fight against struggles and sin that keeps dogging you, the Heavenly Father is already there ready to equip you with the strength to fight and win against the struggle. In fact, through Jesus Christ the victory over sin has already been achieved.
This isn't pop psychology or name-it-and-claim-it mumbo jumbo. This is believing that God can and will deliver you and He is already at work in your situation. If God is strong enough to raise His Son Jesus Christ from the dead then He can certainly deliver you from your struggles with addictions. He can heal your broken marriage. He can strengthen you to stand in the midst of severe temptation. So don't just sit there. Get up and fight.
There was only one problem. My friend wasn't losing any weight. No, it wasn't the whole "muscle weighs more than fat" issue. The fact was, he wasn't doing anything on the cardiovascular to burn calories and his food intake was just as big as ever. I'm sure there was some new muscle that he had added, but it was hard to see because he had done nothing to shed the pounds that he had set out to lose. My friend said he wanted to lose weight, but he wasn't willing to face his struggle head on and do what it would take to win.
Everyone of us has struggles that earnestly wish to overcome. Some desperately want to lose weight while others want to be more successful at work or school. Many are dealing with nagging issues or addictions that take over their lives. Almost everyone I've ever met with these kinds of struggles has possessed a strong desire to fight them and win. But not everyone does win, do they?
Here's the deal: You can identify a struggle in your life and hate it with all of your heart, but if you aren't fighting tooth and nail against it then it's not really a struggle at all. It's really more like an pet that you really don't want in your house but you are too preoccupied to boot it out the door.
If you are truly struggling in an area of your life - whether it's with a marriage that's failing, an addiction to pornography, your grades at school, self-image issues, etc. - then you will want nothing more than that struggle to be over. And if you want the struggle to be over, that means you want to conquer those things that are making your life miserable. And if you want to conquer something, that means it's time to fight.
Let me give you a word of encouragement. God knows your struggles. In fact, He knew that they would beat you down and pull you away from being the man or woman that He created you to be. That's why time and again God teaches us in the Bible that He is stronger and bigger and greater than anything that we could possibly face. This doesn't mean that you can just sit back and do nothing while God makes like easy-peasy for you. What it does mean is that when you are ready to fight against struggles and sin that keeps dogging you, the Heavenly Father is already there ready to equip you with the strength to fight and win against the struggle. In fact, through Jesus Christ the victory over sin has already been achieved.
This isn't pop psychology or name-it-and-claim-it mumbo jumbo. This is believing that God can and will deliver you and He is already at work in your situation. If God is strong enough to raise His Son Jesus Christ from the dead then He can certainly deliver you from your struggles with addictions. He can heal your broken marriage. He can strengthen you to stand in the midst of severe temptation. So don't just sit there. Get up and fight.
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