Please STOP telling people that being a Christian is hard.
If you feel your walk with Jesus is hard or your calling is a heavy burden, ‘you ain’t doin’ it right.’ It was Jesus who proclaimed, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
Take a step back — allow Jesus to search your heart as only He can and trust He will let you know wherein your problem lies. If you’re suffering so, there is a good chance you’re operating in the flesh, and not the Spirit.
Galatians 5:17, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”
Question: If two dogs have a fight, which one is going to win?
Answer: The one you feed the most.
So it is with the flesh and the Spirit. If we feed to the Spirit, the Spirit wins. If we feed to the flesh, the flesh will win. But what happens if we feed them equally? Frankly, it’s the worst possible scenario — the fight lingers on and on. This kind of fight is going to be a ‘hard‘ and ‘burdensome‘ match, quite contrary to what Jesus taught us.
Consider what Jesus meant when He spoke these words in Luke 9:23,
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Our daily struggle is between our flesh and our Spirit. For this reason, Jesus reminds us that at the start of each day, we must remember our baptism. That is to say, our flesh was ceremoniously crucified and we now desire to walk in the Spirit. As we daily pick up our cross, we are reminded of at least two very important things: we have reckoned our flesh dead and that feeding a corpse is imbecilic and ill-advised. And lest we forget, the power to achieve this is from God, through the Spirit.
The reality is that those who continue to pronounce that Christianity is a hard discipline and a heavy burden, are likely feeding their flesh far too much or they are having difficulty in distinguishing flesh from Spirit and visa versa. Again, these folks need to stop. The fact that they are saying something converse to what Jesus has taught demonstrates that they are actively feeding their old man.
Listen, we’re all guilty to some degree (again, which is why Jesus wants us to hoist our cross daily), but have we not been taught…
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17
If you find this scripture lesson to be a hard teaching or a heavy burden to bear, there’s a very good chance your flesh is sated today. Two things: stop feeding your flesh and stop telling everyone the Christian walk is difficult.
Walking in the flesh is difficult. Period.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent. Revelation 2:5
These articles may or may not be related:
- Fight the good fight to rid yourself of the flesh (blessedaaron08.wordpress.com)
- And Now, This Important Message from Our Sponsor (gracefullyunraveled.com)
- I Miss My Sin (jesuslikespizza.wordpress.com)
- Living in Christ, Christ Living in Us (incontestable.org)
- The cross! The cross! (hiddenanddelighted.wordpress.com)
- A Good Word If You Are Burdened Today (2cherish2commend.wordpress.com)
- Your Daily Cross (compassiondave.wordpress.com)
- Detach yourself from the Yoke that binds you (truthorshame.com)
- Today I am Tired (markblock.wordpress.com)
- Being Yoked To Jesus (pastorht.wordpress.com)
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He Dwells -- The B'log in My Eye 