#TheStruggleisReal

Ever wonder why you have to struggle? Why God doesn’t just take away the things in our lives that make us fall flat on our faces? Like that pride issue that creeps into every argument making you always have to be right, regardless of who you may hurt… Or that online addiction that has creeped into your marriage taking your eyes and desires away from the one you gave your heart to… Or that vanity issue that has kept you so wrapped up in looking a certain way that you’re spending time in the bathroom after every meal getting rid of whatever you just put in… Why must we struggle so often when we just know that God has the ability to just zap our lives and “just make us better” or make everything we struggle with go away? Well I heard a pastor put it like this once… He explained that his son wasn’t learning to walk as fast as the other kids. He was nearly one and would barely crawl, let alone walk on his own. My pastor realized that his son had become so dependent on him to pick him up every time he wanted to go somewhere that he never learned the ability to crawl or walk. His son would just cry, whine, get picked up and get whatever he was needing or wanting at the time. His sons inability to struggle had in a sense made him weak. My pastor had to do what our Heavenly Father does to us and let him struggle. He let his son cry, watching him struggle to get to the toy he wanted. Slowly, his son began to crawl and after that…began to walk. His son went from inability to ability because of the struggle…learning to be strong enough to crawl, then walk, and run. Our mistake is believing that God is somehow absent in our struggles. Just like my pastor was always there watching his son, ready to jump in at any sign of trouble or to catch his son any time he fell while learning to walk…so is God. But its that struggle that makes us strong and builds in character and integrity deep in our hearts. Its learning to lean into God when the struggle gets real, its learning to resist it, and at times to flee from it. All the while we are growing stronger, growing closer to God, and become better at putting flesh to death everyday and walking IN CHRIST. Trust me, #TheStruggleIsReal and never completely goes away. It pops up in different ways, different forms and at different times. But the more you resist, the more you struggle against it, the more you fight the flesh and press into the person God has made you to be…the stronger you become. You have the same inability in your life right now with whatever it is that you “struggle” against, but much the same way my pastor’s son learned to walk…so can you. Press into God, He will give you the strength to resist, to persevere, to really put to death the struggle and get you from inability to ability. - Carlos