LIFE IS A GREAT STRUGGLE
Psalm 90:10 NLT
{A prayer of Moses, the man of God}
Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty. But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble.
Acts 14:22 NASB-1995
Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Genesis 1:17b NLT
God – “I have placed a curse on the ground. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat its grain. All your life you will sweat to produce food until your dying day.”
Friends, it is so critically important for us to understand this reality, spoken of so clearly by God, in the Bible. Life is a great struggle for all the years of our lives! Over the course of my ministry life, I have known so many people who became disillusioned and filled with disappointment, because of their great misunderstanding about life and their unrealistic, unbiblical expectations of it. Many became extremely discouraged and have never been able to overcome that discouragement.
The reality of life is this: Everything fights us. Every passion and desire fights against us to turn us from God. Everything in our culture fights against us and makes each day a genuine struggle. Building and maintaining a godly marriage is a great struggle. Getting up and going to work to make a living is a great struggle. Trying to make a living, pay bills, and provide for your family’s needs is a great struggle. Trying to stay healthy and fit is a great struggle. Godly parenting is a great struggle. The great forces of evil, both human and spiritual, fight against us every single day and make our journey a great struggle. Wicked, cruel, and oppressive people and governments fight against us and make our lives a great struggle. Our fickle, ever-changing emotions fight against us and make life a great struggle. Great injustices fight against us and make our life a great struggle. Our own thoughts fight against us and make life a great struggle.
Understanding this, and accepting the realities we face has been one of the great spiritual secrets of my life and my walk with God. Why? Because it has made me grasp our urgent, desperate need for God. It fuels within me an insatiable appetite for Jesus Christ, for His salvation, His deliverance, His help, His blessings, His companionship, His guidance, His wisdom, His comfort, His grace, His answers to prayer, His rest, and His divine strength. It fuels my anticipation of that great day He takes us home to live with him in absolute perfection, where there are no more struggles ever again, for all eternity!
It has convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only way to truly live now, is a life of faith! Faith is the only victory that overcomes this world of struggle. We must each be Faithwalkers. Read Hebrews 11 once again, and you will see revealed there that all the great heroes of faith’s lives, were ones of great struggle, great hardships, great injustices, great trials and adversities, great waitings over long periods of time, great endurance of sufferings. But the eternal, end result of their lives was this: THEY WON!
Yes, there will be some victories now! Yes, there will be some joy now. Yes, there will be wonderful answers to prayer now. Yes, there will be some wonderful blessings from God now. Yes, there may be some great achievements and wonderful successes. But always along with great struggle. Always through a great struggle. Always accompanied by great struggle.
I know many of you may be battling right now, great struggles with discouragement, as hardships and difficulties seem to surround you.
I want you to know, I understand your journey. I too have had to battle through great struggles, great discouragements, great setbacks, and circumstances I sincerely thought would kill me, as in literally break my heart, causing me to die. I too have had seasons of despair and felt all hope was gone. I am in fact living through struggles even now.
Many years ago, I wrote this song. The lyrics convey the terrible struggle I was going through then and have had to walk through many times since I wrote it 20 years ago.
ARE YOU LISTENING by Mark Darling
I’m standing on the edge of my life,
I’m looking down below.
I feel so lost and all alone,
I don’t know where to go!
I called your name out, are you listening?
Will your answer ever come?
I called your name out, are you listening?
Can you hear me from above?
I’m lying, staring at my room,
My heart is broke in two!
I feel abandoned, so confused,
Will it ever go away?
I called your name out, are you listening?
Will your answer ever come?
I called your name out, are you listening?
Can you hear me from above?
The questions, my mind’s full of doubts,
Your word can it be true?
So desperately I’m clinging Lord to you,
Just gotta see me through!
I called your name out, are you listening?
Will your answer ever come?
I called your name out, are you listening?
Can you hear me from above?
I feel so dead, more dead than alive
I need a touch from you.
I’m begging Lord come breathe on my life
I’m crying out to you!
And then you answered with your comfort
You brought hope and mercy too.
I see it clearly, you surround me,
God your promises are true!
I called your name out, you were listening!
You heard me all along.
You took my sorrow, you took my pain.
Lord, I’m celebrating you!
And then you answered with your comfort,
You brought hope and mercy to,
I see it clearly, you surround me,
God your promises are true!
Dear friends, soon I will be 65. I can tell you without reservation, that every struggle, every fight, all the times I have lived that song, God has brought me through, comforted my weary soul, and kept me walking close to Him, who is the greatest joy and strength of my life.
My truth: Life never lives up to our expectations, God always exceeds our expectations!
Your faith in God is never, ever, ever in vain! It will sustain you and God will richly reward you for it.
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
