The Faith Struggle

Are Christians going through challenging times, if they abide in Christ as they should? The Apostle Paul says in Acts 14:22: "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."

What should we do when we go through times when we experience the hardships of following God?

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Sermon Excerpt

"The Christian life is not what you'd call a walk in the park, it has it's challenges. But yet, through it all, we ought to have a peace in our heart as we face these challenges.

There will be times when you'll go through experiences - and we all had - when you don't understand what's going on. And when we look at the experience of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, we certainly see one of these experiences in his life. But remember, he was one with the Father, the Father was ministering through him, and now in his life he was brought to a point where he couldn't bring himself to bear it in his humanness. And he prayed, "Father, I really don't want to do this. It's too hard. If possible, let it be taken from me." Three times he prayed that. That was struggle!"

The Faith Struggle - Sermon Summary

Heb 12:6-11

For continual, unbroken abiding in Christ

100% surrender to God's will -100% of time

God may lead you into an experience where this is not easy.

Challenge may seem too difficult.

At such times important to remember

You in situation by God's leading.

Christ's Example

Christ's experience in Garden of Gethsemane Through life Christ obeyed His Father implicitly

Allowing Father to manifest Himself through Him.

John 1:14

Jesus never turned away from following:

Truth of God's Word
Way the Father led Him.

Now in the garden

Faced the most difficult challenge of following the Father's will.
Three times prayed the "cup" of suffering be taken
Each time yielded to Father's will (Matt 26:39-44).

The Father understood the struggle

Could not remove it.
His divine will for the events to transpire.

Jesus knew He was being led by His Father.

Therefore willingly submitted -though very difficult

In prayer Christ gained the victory over the crisis

Once victory gained in prayer- His obedience unto death was assured.

When we face such times of crisis under God's leading

Essential we follow Christ's example.

In prayer we will find the strength and courage to move forward in faith

As we continue to abide in Christ
Knowing He will see us through
He will manifest Himself in and through us all the way to victory.

Why is This Happening?

There will be experiences we not understand why

At such times vital we realize

Christ still resides in us
He will manifest Himself in and through us during any crisis.

We must rest in that fact to maintain His peace. Paul was called to go through many difficulties

Asked God to remove them
God said "No"
2Corinthians 12:7-10

These experiences made Paul feel:

Weak, helpless and vulnerable.

He realized the value in these trials

He stated, "when I am weak, then am I strong;"

Meaning: God's strength would be manifested in and through him when he realized his utter weakness.

At first these difficulties challenged him

Confusing because he didn't understand.
Why prayed three times for God to remove them.

Then when saw reason God left them in his life

He could say, "most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
He could actually thank God for these thorns.

Paul came to realize these "thorns" were opportunities

To manifest Christ's character in him.

These thorny experiences and trials

Not circumstances we would choose for ourselves.
God chooses them for us.
They are His means of discipline.
Hebrews 12:6-7, 11

These difficult situations

Try our faith;
Tempted to distrust God -
Tempted to question His leading and loving care

Romans 8:28 - We must trust this promise

Elijah's Example

Elijah's experience illustrates faith struggle 1 Kings 19:1-3

Elijah's great victory on Mount Carmel
Fleeing from Jezebel's threat

Important lessons concerning necessity of continuing our close communion with God.

Satan took advantage of Elijah's:

Physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion.

He could:

Stand before hundreds of pagan priests,
Call fire down from God in a challenge of who was the true God,

Threats of enraged Jezebel undid him - he fled for his life.

In the process of becoming like Christ:

We go through times
Where everything seems to come in on us
We feel overwhelmed.

When this happens remember:

Feelings of being overwhelmed are caused by
Loosing our hold on God
Looking to ourselves or the situation.

Every time take our sights off Christ

We will begin to sink in fear & failure

Peter's Experience

Walking on water at Christ's word - Matthew 14:23-31

Began sinking when looked to waves & not Christ.
Threatening storm and waves put fear in his heart.

We may experience fear

When by Christ's leading we find ourselves in the midst of a terrible storm of life
And we take our eyes off Christ.

Another lesson from Elijah's experience

Importance of following God's laws of health.
Their neglect lead to weaken our hold on Christ.

Example: consistently don't get enough rest

Become overly tired,
Mentally fatigued
Spiritually, emotionally and physically weakened.
This will affect your faith relationship with Christ
Which could lead to a crisis of faith.

Experience of Job illustrates the faith struggle.

Job unaware of what happening and why
Crisis after crisis came upon him;
Loss of material possessions,
Loss of family,
Loss of health.
Received no understanding or encouragement from wife or friends.
In bitterness his wife told him to curse God and die.
Friends kept telling Job these events were judgments from God because of sin in his life.
Yet, through all this Job kept his faith
Declared "though slay me, yet will I trust in him" (Job 13:15).

Christian life has challenges, difficulties, disappointment, and tragic experiences.

If we learn to rest in Jesus:

We can have an "Jesus'" abiding peace, a peace that "passeth all understanding" (Phil 4:6-7).

This is the experience the Lord wants to lead us into.

This kind of faith and resting in Christ

Necessary for all who enter into time of trouble.
All earthly support removed.
Many friends and family members turn against them.

If they learned the truth of abiding in Christ:

All fear will be gone - have Christ's peace
"faith of Jesus" will be manifested in their life.

Then:

Trials only serve to further prepare them for Christ's glorious return.

The Causes

Faith struggles happen in numerous ways:

Struggle over issue that is difficult for us to move forward on under God's direction
Jesus in garden
Difficult situations may arise in our life and service for the Lord, which we don't understand.
Paul's throne in flesh
We may like Paul ask God to remove them, but He doesn't seem to hear our prayer
Exp. Struggle - been practicing poor health habits and we weakened physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Conclusion

The important thing:

Be aware these kinds of crisis will come
Don't let them totally overwhelm you.
Sometimes all you can do is wait for God to lead you through them.
He will get you through
He will also fulfill His promise to work them all out for your good (Romans 8:28).
God understands the struggles you go through.
He will never leave you or forsake you at such times.

In fact, I believe that the times of greatest struggle in our life are the times we have God's most special care.

Sermon: The Faith Struggle