“The Difficulties of being a Christian”


BIBLE READING: 2 Corinthians 10-13
DISCUSSION                                             
                You did it again didn’t you?  Just when you think that you are making progress, you slip right back into your old self and sin again.  We try to make ourselves feel better by saying things like “everybody does it”, or “I can’t be perfect anyway”, but the truth is you are still a sinner.  It is hard isn’t it?  I mean, Satan knows what He is doing, and the world today just isn’t what it used to be; it is just so hard trying to be a Christian in today’s world.  Is it though?  I know that we do face so many temptations, and Satan is clever, but this world was never meant to be easy for a Christian to live in.  Even Paul dealt with his struggles, “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).   Point being, it will never be easy to be a Christian.  In this life there will always be struggles, persecutions, temptations, setbacks and failures because we live in this life!   Again, this life was never meant to be conducive for Christian living, because Christian living is against human nature.  Although it will always be difficult, it is still worth living because the life to come will be so much better.  In the next life, we will never have to deal with pain, setback, temptations, sin or even Satan again.  In that life, Christian living will be the norm.
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