Last night was our first night of Young Life leader training with Auburn-Opelika Young Life. I got lost and showed up twenty minutes late, so the majority of what I heard was Eric telling stories about his kids spending loads of money on in-app purchases and his kids' pets dying from awful diseases. Anyways, after we got done I was talking with a great friend of mine named Joey. He is so wise and such an amazing friend. He reminded me of something that I think we all need to be reminded of pretty often: We are not alone.
There are many times when I struggle with something and satan gets in my head trying to tell me that I'm the only one that struggles with that. What's crazy is that I actually believe him and beat myself up for it! How can I love my neighbors as myself if all I do is beat myself up over things like this?
All of the things that we struggle with boil down to one thing: living the Christian life in a secular world. I know that seems simple (one of my friends over in Uganda named Patrick says to keep it simple, so I try to do that as much as possible), but just think about it. God has called us to be holy as He is Holy, but the world says to conform to its ways.
I'm sitting here thinking about things that the world wants us to give in to, and my list just seems so insignificant in comparison to what others go through. There are people around the world that face death because of their faith in Jesus. Those are two completely different things, but like I said earlier, they both center around the same thing.
Not only are we not alone in our struggles, in our sufferings, and in our trials. We are not alone when we worship God! We are not alone when we praise Him, when we pray to Him, when we read His Word! We are not the only ones trying to live out the Christian life in this secular world. There are people around the world that we may not see or know that are trying to live this life along side of us. They join us in the suffering. They join us in the praise.
Do not let satan tell you that you are alone and do not conform to this world.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." -Romans 12:2
