Christian Girl Writes ( Christian Advice)

The good fight

Romans 5:3-5 "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."

This verse teaches us that we are God's Soliders and to become a  better soldier you have to go through difficult stuff ,and push through,but it teaches you endurance  and endurance builds up your(strength of )character and once you start growing ,it gives you  hope to continue growing  and this teaches you to keep pursuing God despite the circumstances. This helps us when we go through tough times ,because we will be able to praise him more as we have been trained  to not let trials stop us from trusting him ,compared to someone who hasn't, they will easily give up.

An earthly soldier just doesn't become a soldier by doing barely anything, they have to go through rigourus exercises to be prepared for their goal ,which is to be ready whenever to go and fight ,but in order for them to be prepared, they have to go through tough training, so that they can have the strength to be able to fight, and the further they go in their training, the harder it becomes, in the same way this example can be applied to believers. A baby believer and a mature believer  will be completely different ,but not so many manage to reach the stage  of a serious and mature believer as it is hard, but the same principle can be applied.

Many people are lied to that when you accept Jesus Christ, your life will be nice and rosy,however sorry to break it to you, that is not the case ,I'm not saying your life will be bad ,but your no longer part of this world and persecutions come along with that .

Jesus said in John 15:18 " “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." For example as teen Christian you can be called "boring" for not doing stuff that are seen as "fun" or "cool" but don't let acceptance make you forget your christian morals ,it doesn't mean you can't have fun but not everything that is "fun" is right and
as a believer you should be able to discern that ,the same goes  for adults,don't let competition of trying to get a better house or a car ,hinder your relationship with God, there is nothing wrong with wanting these things, but don't let your ambitions drive you away from your relationship with God,as Jesus Christ said in John 15:19" If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."

We are in the world, but are not of it ,you can still have these desires and work hard ,but don't give yourself unnecessary stress to achieve things that in the end will perish,remember our worldly goals will come to an end ,but as a believer your goal is eternal as we will have treasures in heaven that will never fade.

However the journey to reach heaven is hard,let me make it clear we don't make it to heaven by ourselves, Jesus christ already did that for us by dying on the cross for us ,however it's our choice to accept him and repent of our sins and to develop a relationship with him.

Nevertheless, as a young Christian, I do find myself sometimes doubting God,especially when I go through tough times,but I have learnt never to be selective with when you praise God,you praise God at all times  through the bad and the good  ,but as humans it is hard as we can get angry at God ,when it seems like he is  not hearing or answering our prayers  ,but God is omniscient and knows what we need ,yet sometimes that is hard to grasp especially when things in your life are upside down,but  remember being a citizen of heaven doesn't mean you won't go through  tough times and won't have questions,however the way you react and behave in those  situations should be different to non-believers, even though it is hard.

God is our heavenly father and a father teaches and disciplines his children and wants to provide the  best for them,  but that doesn't mean that they will get what they want, this links back to my soldier example at the start, as the commander wants their soldiers to be in their best condition ,so they can be ready to fight whenever anything bad strikes their way,this can be applied to believers as God wants his children or soldiers to be ready, whenever temptations or trials come our way,but how can we be ready to fightthose temptations or push through those trials?  

Being armoured with God's word ,which is why we have to be in his presence at all times ,but realistically that is not always possible ,the way we live our life should be a reflection of Christ,a way of doing this ,is always praying,reading his word ,treating people kindly,listening to sermons,responding to a situation differently compared to how others would  normally respond to it ,and many more.

Your lifestyle should be an example of Christ,preaching Christ doesn't mean you are with him,you can preach God's word , but your lifestyle doesn't match,  that doesn't mean try and be  perfect , we are sinners and will fall short,but the way you act should be different and make people question why you act the way you do,which is because of Jesus Christ.

As believers we are in a spiritual battle , as Ephesians 6:12 states "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places". That doesn't mean it's an excuse to sin anyhow, but we should always be armoured with the word of God, as we will always be faced with temptations, even so, don't ever let falling into temptation make you feel guilty of not  being able to come back to God, infact don't wait or dwell on what you have done, realise you have sinned,repent then reflect. David fell short of temptation, however he repented quick and didn't dwell on it; if he had stayed in God's presence he would have not fallen for the temptation,but he didn't just sit in his sin he repented quickly.

Realise,repent,reflect and then do better.

For example Joseph was always in God's presence ,so when temptation came to him,he  did not fall for it,  he even walked away, sometimes the easier option is to walk away from the  temptation, but that is not always the case, sometimes fighting temptation back with  God's word is what we need to do,like what Jesus did when the devil tempted him.

Being a believer doesn't mean you won't be tempted or go through tough times, but remember the strongest soldiers are the ones whose perserved and went through  alot of tests and trials , the same with the greatest apostles of the Holy bible. The further you grow in your relationship with God ,the more harder the spiritual battles
become ,which is why God wants to prepare us for it ,it is not easy, but this is the good fight Paul talked about .

God loves you even when it doesn't seem like it ,sometimes we take stuff for granted like  going out the house and coming back alive, so if you are still alive praise God ,death doesn't have any age limit it comes to anyone , so thank God for everything and the things we take for granted.