We Aren’t Here for Easy

Proverbs 3:5-6 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your path straight.” This is my favorite Bible verse! It is so encouraging to me because I know that if I trust Him, He will make my paths clear and straight. I don’t have to worry or wonder if I am doing the right thing. But I do have to trust Him and submit my ways to Him – which isn’t always easy. In fact, it is quite difficult. 

If you are like me, you go through stages, periods in your life where you fully trust God, but then the troubles of this world and your daily life drags you down again. You start believing lies about yourself, about the One Who created you. You try to take the easy path by just doing what you want, choosing to ignore what you know you should do. You might even convince yourself that since you are weak you can’t do the things you once did or think you should do. And while that may be the case, chances are Satan is just trying to get at you. 

Satan loves to distract us with things happening in the world. He plays with our fears and makes them a reality to try to scare us away from God and what we should be doing. He distracts us from seeing the good things that are right in front of our face. When he succeeds in distracting us, he then deceives us. Encouraging us to think that the wrong thing that we are doing, watching, listening to ‘isn’t so bad’. We do it, see it, hear it so often that eventually we agree with him. After all, my friends are doing it, watching it, and listening to it. Maybe it isn’t that bad. That’s when we are open enough that we allow him to destroy us – from the inside out. We become more accepting of things that shouldn’t be allowed in us. Things that God detests. Foul language, bad images, desires that are against God’s Word. All things that end up getting into our mind and heart and are difficult to get out. Things that weren’t meant to be there in the first place. Is there something you are hiding but keep going back to? Something that you aren’t proud of, but you can’t let go of? 

Maybe you struggle with an addiction or an idol. I might go so far to say that most of us probably do. Whether it be alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, money, attention, food, the desire to be loved, your job – anything can be an idol or an addiction if you can’t seem to get away from it and always desire more. Anything that is more important to you than God is an idol. I realized that fairly recently. My dreams and goals could very well be an idol for me! Things that I focus on more than Him are idols for me, and they probably are for you as well. 

What comes next after you have been distracted and deceived? Then you start to become destroyed. Suddenly, you aren’t the person you used to be. Suddenly, the person you wanted to become seems so far out of reach. It’s a scary place to be. An overwhelming place. But you can get back on the right track. Repent and ask God to forgive you, then forgive yourself and take that step forward again. It’s hard to get on the right track, but it isn’t impossible! 

I challenge you today to look closely at what you pay attention to on a regular basis. What radio stations you listen to. What movies and videos you watch. What books you read. What do you spend your free time doing? What do you look forward to every day? Is there something there that convicts you to change? If so, take the necessary steps to change it! I believe you can do it, and if it seems impossible, remember that nothing is impossible with God! Philippians 4:13 is another good verse to encourage you. 

Something I’ve changed in my life was to let my friends and family members know that I’m going to be extra careful about what movies I watch. I look them up via Christian reviews to make sure they don’t have certain things in them that I am strongly against. At first I felt silly turning a friend down for a movie that she wanted me to go to with her. But, after I told her why and apologized to her, I felt much more confident! 

It’s not going to be easy, I know. But we aren’t here for easy. We are here to glorify God in everything we do. 

What’s something you’ve been convicted to give up in order to live a more godly life? Let me know in the comments below!

Bye for now, have a wonderful day!

~ Carissa