The Struggle

Do we sometimes feel like our lives are a prolonged agony, like being dragged over broken glass? Life can feel like that sometimes. A lot of stuff goes wrong very fast, or your just in a situation you hate to be in. You want a way out, a quick way out, and not be feeling like this.

We live in a life of struggle and hardship. This is the way of our fallen world. It is a fallen world because we have fallen. We suffer because we have rebelled. We opted for that choice to sideline God in favour of ourselves, and try and live our own way. It never works.

What surrounds us can seem inescapable, so we try and find our own way. A way which is not God's way.

Take the book of Hebrews in the Bible for example. Here is a book that visibly demonstrates that pattern: of, under suffering, human beings desperately trying to claw their way out of the pit of despair. Have a good long read of it.

The letter is to a group of Hebrews, being tempted away from the gospel of faith in Christ alone, to trusting in their own works, a twisting of the Old Testament law instead. This is because they are suffering, persectued for their beliefs. The author therefore spends the letter pointing them back to the gospel, that new, better covenant (chapter 8) that comes once and for all in the blood of Jesus (9-10), not the earthly rituals that were but copies of the things to come.

It is by faith we endure, says chapter 11, because of Jesus, encouraging one another with His gospel says chapters 3 and 4, so that we can say with the author in chapter 12:1-2 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."


When life feels painful, that we cannot go on, look to Jesus, who knows our suffering (chapter 4), and went to the cross, for us (1-13), We need to be encouraging one another, in that gospel, daily, for that is how we endure (3-4).

This is but a brief thought on this subject. I really encourage you those who do not know and those who know this book, please go and read it, and pray that you, me, and others around you will know and live out the gospel, by faith, as we endure the struggle. For our need for the gospel does not end or diminish after we trust in Jesus for the first time as Christian believers. We need to be reminded of His Word in the Bible, as Hebrews 4: 12- 13 says: "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

When we cry and long for end, look to Jesus, who has endured more than we ever could,(12) so that we can one day enter God's rest (4), the race run at last, for the ultimate glory of God Himself, and with that our good caught up in the amazing wonderful blessings. For our God is amazing, He never lets us go (Romans 8:19-37), and His kingdom can never, no never, be shaken (Hebrews 12:28-29).

To close this brief thought (I keep reminding that it is brief in the hope you go and read furthur. There is so much to Hebrews, indeed to the whole Bible. I encourage you to stand firm in the struggle with our only hope, the gospel of Christ. The lyrics to the song below are a fantastic expression of these truths:-


How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he has said
to all who for refuge to Jesus have fled.

In every condition - in sickness and health,
in poverty’s grip or abounding in wealth,
at home or abroad, on the land, on the sea -
as days may demand shall your strength ever be.
Since Jesus is with you, do not be afraid:
since he is your God, you need not be dismayed;
he’ll strengthen you, guard you, and help you to stand,
upheld by his righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters he calls you to go,
you will not be drowned in the rivers of woe;
for he will be with you in trouble, to bless
and work for your good through your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
his grace all-sufficient shall be your supply;
the flames shall not harm you: his only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

The soul that in Jesus has found its repose,
he will not, he cannot, desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,he’ll never, no never, no never forsake!