When the Struggle is Real

Devotionals for young individuals who are growing in life and growing their talents. If you are a teenager and passed the newborn Christian stage, added into the mix of the first two aspects, you are

On the days when we are dropping everything. We begin to have attitudes and whine about the struggle, and maybe feeling out of sorts, one of the most comforting things for me to know is that God has got me.

 

On the days I fail, He never fails, on the days I drop the ball, He never drops the ball, I may get bent out of shape, but His grace is so much greater. I don’t deserve it, at all, but I am going to be ok. You know why? He is just that good. In the middle of those days even though I am disoriented, and things are trying to distract me all day, it occurs to me that something much bigger is occurring her that I can’t see. That revelation from the Holy Spirit helps me to drive on. Yes there is tension, I am in a growing period, and I have reached that plateau where I am building spiritual muscle. Yes it is uncomfortable, but not unbearable, and I have to learn to get used to that so I can have everything Jesus meant for me to have.

 

SO I can have the quality of life I truly want, and to impact people in a positive way. Our down falls can’t get in the way of God’s grace. Our mistakes can’t get in the way of God’s plan for our lives. I am not saying we should sin on purpose, or that we should not repent, but when we do slip up, we don’t have to punish ourselves, or feel like we finally messed up for good.

 

We can’t get in God’s way. It’s actually arrogant to think that we could. We want to put God in a box or in manageable bites, but He’s so much more than we ever thought. All we need to do is let Him show us all He can be and stop picking the part of our relationship with Him that we are ok with. When we do this, we have peace that He will always catch us. We can stop punishing ourselves and hanging onto negativity for a week, instead of acknowledging it giving him our failure in exchange for His forgiveness and letting it go and moving on. If all these other aspects of God are so deep, so is His love. He is described as Love itself.

 

So why do we see him as overbearing, punishing God? We are throwing our perception of people on God. How is that fair or consistent with the depth of His love that it has to be if He is never ending?  On the days when the struggle is real, your getting closer to your goals. On the days when its crazy and you know there is a spiritual battle going on today, and you feel like you failed, God is always doing way more than you can see. You are free to go to Him anytime and trade your mistakes for forgiveness and a clean heart and start over tomorrow. Let the weight fall off of you. Live boldly, and open up more to him.

 

Activity: with paper and pencil, what are your ideas of God? Do the images you currently have line up with how He himself is showing you He is. If not where are those negative images coming from?

Author's Note

Devotionals for young individuals who are growing in life and growing their talents. If you are a teenager and passed the newborn Christian stage, added into the mix of the first two aspects, you are adding another confusing and hard to navigate process. ALso there are not a lot of devotionals or resources directed to growing serious Christians or especially young serious Christians. You are not the only one experiencing this process or what you may be going through. I hope these pages can guide you in a difficult time.