Part 1: Jesus did not die on the cross for us in vain so our hardships as born-again Christians are not in vain

I think so many of us think that after we get born again its smooth sailing from there- doors of opportunities should just open, we will never have to face temptation or we will never have problems. Well the reality is far from that… Instead, like everyone else, we go through tough times but it seems worse because we are “Christian” and that shouldn’t really be happening to us or so we would like to think. We do not realise that when we go through these tough times this is when our faith is tested and put into action.

I know everytime I am faced with a situation I feel that I am equipped with the necessary tools to get through that situation. I know the relevant scriptures and I have bible notes and notes from church sermons to remind me of the word of God which is the tool that God has given me. So I need to put the word of God into action because faith without action is dead (James 2:17). However, during these times I find it hard to do as the word says and it is not because I do not know the word.  I have come to realise that it’s a matter of choice. Most people choose to let emotions take over rather than to use the word. We let our circumstances determine our happiness. We feel that sometimes maybe the word of God is asking for too much, how can we possibly just sit there and pray while bad things are happening to us?!

However, what we fail to realise is that Jesus was God in the flesh. He lived on Earth and experienced all that we are faced with as humans- the temptations, the loss of a loved one, the trials and tribulations. In those times and situations Jesus remained steadfast in His faith and always said to the Father “let YOUR will, not mine, be done”. Having accepted Jesus as our Lord and saviour we have been made Christ-like. Jesus lives in us and THROUGH us so as He has faced all these challenges so will we but because we are like Jesus we must CHOOSE to deal with these challenges like He did.

God never said that it would be easy. It wasn’t easy for Jesus so we can’t expect it to be easy for us as ambassadors of Christ. We need to go through what we preach to show that we really do believe in the word of God and in that way, we have testimonies. Testimonies show the work of the hand of God in our lives and thus will help to draw people closer to God as they will see the evidence of His presence in our lives.

“God did not promise the absence of storms, He promised us His presence through those storms…”