We don’t do this life alone.

As Christians, God’s Spirit lives in us. He strengthens, comforts, teaches, convicts and brings to remembrance the truth. So often God uses His Word and fellow believers to accomplish this.

Sometimes I’m afraid of falling back into all my bad eating habits. I fear I will fail again in continuing to lose weight. Starting is always so much easier than finishing. I can feel overwhelmed with how much further I have to go in this journey.  If it was up to me, I wouldn’t make it. But I believe that God has the power to continually transform my heart and that is where I find my hope. My heart and flesh will fail often but God will be the strength of my heart always. It is His spirit in me that empowers me to say no to my self-indulgent desires. It is His kindness that leads me to repentance again and again. 

In this season of life, I feel like God is giving me the opportunity to live out my faith in new ways. I say I want to be more like Christ but it is easy to say those words until hard times come. It is easy to say I believe God’s grace is sufficient until I am facing the consequences of my sin. It is easy to say that I trust God until life seems more uncertain.

The Bible refers to this as the tested genuineness of our faith that is worth more than gold which perishes. We are blessed when we trust in the Lord and place our confidence in Him. The times in life our faith is tested and grows leads to a growing confidence in the Lord. Because of this confidence, we can draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:17) It is so freeing to understand that we can cast all of our cares and fears on the Lord because He has already accomplished everything we need for life and godliness.

We are all facing a battle in life. It is a battle not against earthly people and powers, but it is against our own sinful heart and Satan who very much wants to destroy us.  It is a battle we cannot fight on our own strength. There is a good kind of fear that causes us to run into safety. We only run from the things we are afraid of. Since this is true, I want to have a right fear of the attempts of the enemy to steal, kill and destroy in my life so that I will look to Jesus for the abundant life He freely gives.

This is why the Holy Spirit is such a precious gift; He enables and helps us in our walk, and He points us to Jesus who is our strength and shield. I’m becoming more and more thankful for how God’s Spirit leads and guides in life.  He opens our eyes to truth, encourages hearts, gently convicts, uses scripture to change our lives and enables us to walk in the newness of life.

This is also why it is so important to have fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to spur one another on when we feel like giving up, to warn us when we are being deceived by sin and to show each other the compassion of the Lord when we feel tired and weak. There is a reason God gave us the church- a group of believers to do life with. We all know church can be messy at times but I pray we’ll all know the joy of being a part of a church that is pursuing Christlikeness for the praise of His glorious grace. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says it like this: Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.

May we always be strong in the Lord and confident in His power to soften and transform our hearts, and may we continually seek to point one another to Jesus! For those who place their faith in Christ, we don’t have to face this life alone- what a precious gift that is!