I struggle with "stuff." You struggle with "stuff." I mean, we all struggle with something. Some of us struggle with things like pornography addiction, others with alcohol or drugs, some folks struggle with depression, others with cutting, some with eating disorders, for some people it's lust, some with greed, other people with anger. We all have different struggles that really affect who we are and our relationship with our Creator. But I came to the realization this past week that struggling is ok, struggling is good! I was hanging out with an old friend discussing my struggles and some breakthroughs I've had with my struggles and strongholds over the past month or so. I talked with him about how I feel that because I have struggles and because I've struggled in the past that I can't be effective in ministry. But, he helped me understand that I am fit for ministry! That because I have struggles that means I am doing the right thing.

My handy dandy Oxford American Dictionary widget defines the noun struggle as: "a forceful or violent effort to get free of restraint or resist attack."

When you struggle you are fighting against the temptation that the enemy is trying to get you caught in. When you struggle you are resisting tempting. When you struggled you are fighting to get free, you are fighting for holiness, you are fighting to get rid of something in your life that shouldn't be there. And you struggle because you are being obedient to God. God wants us to be holy and says that certain things are sin and that we must not do them, and if we are tempted by those things, if we find ourselves in those sins we have to struggle to be free from them!

So...all of that to say that struggling is good and that it is NOT wrong to struggle! We think that someone struggling with something is bad but it isn't. Because, if you're struggling you are doing the right thing...

Labels: freedom, God, struggling, temptation