This is not a “popular” message among Christians today, Ron, but one that deperately needs to be shared. Christians who are struggling are often treated with contempt by the Church, as if their struggles are a sign that they are out of fellowship with God in some way. The truth is that when we make a commitment to serve God, we make ourselves a target of the enemy of God – Satan – and this is often the reason for our struggle. Too many in the Church don’t want to hear that.

My first “Struggles” post dealt with the idea that a good God wouldn’t allow people to suffer and the notion that struggle is actually good for us.  But Jenn brings up a good point.  There are those in the church who believe that faithful Christians are supposed to live uncomplicated, successful lives.  They believe that if we are suffering it must be the result of our own sin.

This was a notion not unknown in Jesus day and clearly, from the story of Job, we know it was common in his day as well  But what does the Bible actually say on this point?

John 9:1-3 says,

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

The disciples clearly thought as many Christians today think.  Jesus had a different view.  That is, the struggles we go through and the things we suffer are ultimately for His glory!  In the case of the man born blind, it gave Jesus the opportunity to heal him and point people to God.  But healing isn’t the only way God is glorified.  Often the opposite is true.  Indeed, a faithful Christian going through suffering can be one of the most inspiring things you’ll ever see because that person draws people to Jesus.

But there are other reasons for suffering.  As I mentioned in the comments, Jesus made this point clearly in John 15:20:

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

The fact is, being a true disciple of Jesus comes at a cost.  The enemy will come against you if he perceives you as a threat.  Conversely, any Christian that never suffers attack is obviously no threat to the enemy.  If that describes you, perhaps you should reevaluate your relationship with Jesus.

Rom 8:16-19 says,

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Notice the conditional clause “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”  It certainly looks like suffering is a requirement of glorification.  Paul goes on to point out the the temporary suffering we face in this life isn’t “worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

James 1:2-4 says,

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The Bible has much to say about the suffering and struggles of the saints and nowhere does it even suggest that faithfulness leads to a pain free life or prosperity or anything desirable in terms of this world.  Indeed, we are told that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.”  Those who seek an easy life and prosperity are storing up treasures on earth, not in heaven.

We are strangers here on earth.  This is not our home and when we think like it is we find ourselves unable to grow in Christ.

I no longer seek to avoid struggles because I know they are part of God’s plan and they focus my attention on the cross.  And the fact is, I have no control, however much it may look to me that I do.  So I look to the Lord for the strength to carry me through the trials and to teach me what I need to learn from them.

I’ve gone through seasons where I was praying regularly and productively, only to one day realize that somewhere along the way I had stopped.  When that realization hits it is often guilt inducing.  After all, I’m supposed to be a growing Christian who walks the walk.  How can I not pray?

Part of the answer seems fairly obvious.  The enemy doesn’t want us praying so he gives us lots of things to take the place of prayer.  And being the fallen humans we are, we tend to fall for it.

The guilt that follows is also from the enemy.  He tells us we’re wasting our time or we’re incapable of doing what we should so we should just give up trying.  The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, convicts us to get up and keep going.

I’m endeavoring to be more intentional about prayer.  I want to have my daily prayer time but I want to go beyond that.  I want to “pray without ceasing” as the apostle Paul put it.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve struggled with some problem or challenge at work that I seemed unable to find the answer to.  Like clockwork, when I tell my wife about the frustration, her response will be the same: “have you prayed about it?”  It becomes embarrassing after the umteenth time we go through this and I still have to hang my head and say “no.”

It is not only embarrassing, it is contrary to who I am as a Christian.  Prayer should be the default response to everything in life, whether we perceive them as good or bad.  God always knows what’s going on in our lives.  He is always in control and we can always trust Him to know what He’s doing.  Because of that we should be praising Him in all situations and looking for what He is doing.

So I’m working to improve my prayer life.  For one thing, I’m putting s small sign in my car that says simply “PRAY.”  When I get up in the morning I want to pray.  When I leave the house I want to pray.  When I arrive at a client’s location I want to pray.  When I leave the client I want to pray.  I want prayer to be such an integral part of my life that not praying is unthinkable.  I want it to be the default response to everything that happens in life

I know that God hears and answers when I pray.  I know this, not simply because the Bible says so, though that is reason enough.  I know it because I’ve experienced it far to many times to ignore.  God has always been faithful, even when I haven’t.  It is insanity for me not to pray!

The visit was actually pretty funny at points.  The doctor called me his poster child because of the level of improvement.  In fact, he’s apparently had discussions with the drug company about me.  Obviously he believes the treatment is entirely responsible for for all this.

I don’t want to minimize the value of medical treatments in general or this treatment in particular.  Indeed, I consider myself to be incredibly blessed to have ended up at this particular doctor who had just recently completed a small set of trials sponsored by the drug company with this treatment.  In my mind it is nothing short of a miracle that, of all the doctors I could have seen, I saw this doctor.  That is God at work my friends!

But I also know, based on other things the doctor has said over these last several weeks, that my results are not typical.  He always expected some improvement but I don’t believe he ever expected to see the level that occurred in just two days.  When he saw me on the Friday after the treatment on Wednesday, he was incredibly excited over the improvement in my visual acuity.  In fact, he was a lot more excited than I was because I wasn’t also experiencing improvement in visual field.

The bottom line is this.  I don’t know how much more improvement I’ll see or even if I’ll see any more improvement at all.  I do know that God has worked in miraculous ways already and I expect He will continue to do so!

Now I believe I have a new direction for the blog.  So much has happened in my life and the lives of those in my family that I am now refocused.

For example, several weeks ago I experienced a sudden, dramatic loss of vision.  I suffered something called Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (NAAION).  This is commonly described as a stroke of the optic nerve.  The results progress very rapidly and over a period of about four days, I lost much of the vision in my left eye.  I knew exactly what was going on from the start because the same thing occurred in my left eye eleven years ago which left me legally blind in that eye.  As serious as that sounds, it was really more of an inconvenience to me that anything else because my left eye remained sound.  Now, of course, I’m blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other, so to speak.

Fortunately, my left eye is not so bad as my right eye so I am not legally blind but I do have some real limitations I did not have a few weeks ago.  I cannot drive at night or in the rain and reading has become more difficult.  I need text to be larger to read comfortably.  I can still read fairly small text when I have to but doing so for any length of time is exhausting and leads to headaches.

I don’t mention all this to elicit sympathy from anyone.  On the contrary, sympathy is the last thing I need.  Indeed, what I have needed, God has graciously provided!  And that is really the point of this post and the direction I will be taking this blog.

You see, throughout this ordeal, God has given me strength.  Faithful Christians all over have prayed for me, many who don’t know me at all.  Dozens of churches have mobilized prayer warriors and their prayers have been heard and answered.  The answer has not been physical healing.  It has been greater dependence on Him.  It has been a miraculous treatment that improved my ability to read, which was almost lost entirely.  It has been the provision of thousands of dollars in equipment for the visually impaired that I could never have afforded.  And it has been in the quiet strength of my wife and partner, Jules.

I am truly blessed among men and that blessing has nothing to do with physical comforts or even physical health.  I am blessed, above all, because I know beyond all doubt that my faith in God is well founded.  I know that I can trust Him and His plan, whether I ever understand it or not.

My pastor, Buster Brown, wrote a blog post today on the subject of joy.  I’m so pleased that Buster has begun to blog.  Anyway, I was thinking about joy and it occurred to me that the struggles in my life have ultimately lead to more joy than all the successes and triumphs.  That may seem counter intuitive but the reason is that I am forced to become more dependent on God during struggles and that is right where we all need to be.  Unless we are totally dependent upon God, we will be frustrated, dissatisfied and without joy.

So now I am looking to the future, both in life and on this blog.  I know that, whether my vision stays the same, gets worse or gets better, God is in control and I will be okay.  I may not be okay in terms the world can understand but the world is not my home.  I want to work at explaining that more fully in the months to comes so stay tuned.