“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:7-10 NIV)
The student leader had been seen drinking heavily at a party. She didn’t deny what had happened. In discussing it with me a number of years ago, she first justified herself by saying she was 21 and could legally drink. When I challenged her rationale, she responded, “Well, we all struggle.” Struggle implies a fight or resistance. I sensed little of either happened in this situation.
Often when people talk about struggling with sin, whether it be drunkenness, sexual immorality, or something else, they are merely saying they are engaging in it. Labeling it as a “struggle” doesn’t make it (them) sound as bad. In reality, there is not much struggle taking place.
If we are truly struggling with a certain sin, then we are offering resistance. We are trying to fight off the temptation. We are looking for successful strategies. We may lose a few battles, but we don’t offer up the white flag of surrender.
As Christians we step onto a spiritual battleground every day. We must be willing and ready to fight. But if we are not, then let us be honest and say we are surrendering to our own desires and stop trying to make ourselves look and feel better by saying we are struggling when we really are not. That can be the first step in truly beginning to struggle.
© Jim Musser 2013
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