You want me to do what?
There is a strange misconception that if you become a Christian your life will be easy. This is not true. Jesus states very clearly in the Gospel of John, “ In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Somehow the knowledge that God will be with us through whatever happens in our lives, good and bad, has been mis-taught to mean that God will keep bad things from happening to us.
We also often have the contradictory perception that as soon as we give our lives to Jesus, God will take control and make us do things we don't want to do. God never makes us do things we don't want to do. God may ask us to do things we don't want to do, but we always have the choice to accept or reject His path for our lives.
Within the boundary of free will, however, it is true that the closer you come to God, the more often He will stretch your comfort zone: The closer we follow God, the more He helps us 'grow up'.
As all of us know, growing up isn't easy and it isn't always fun. Now that I am an adult, however, I can truly say that I would not want to go back to being a child or, in particular, an adolescent.
With maturity, comes the responsibility of making good choices not only for ourselves, but for those with whom we are in relationship.
God will ask each of us to do things for the good of his kingdom. Things that are sacrificial on our part. Things that are hard and make us choose between things that we might not want to choose between.
God might ask you to take the high road at work which could cost you upward mobility. God might ask you to love someone that you find repugnant and it will take enormous effort on your part to love them unconditionally. God might call you to share Him with people who don't know Him and you have to overcome your fear of embarrassment and possible rejection to do so.
No matter what God asks you to do, however, He will always be with you.
Whether your accomplishment is met with adulation or derision.
Whether you are successful or fail at your desired goal.
God will be faithful to you and never abandon you.
Chesney Szaniszlo
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