The struggle is real

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Pogback. Utd have finally landed their man, or re-landed as some would rightly argue, given the French midfielder is returning to the very same club that sold him in the first place. His transfer fee is off course, ridiculously high, an indication that the beautiful game has become ugly when it comes to money; not that United will care one bit.

A few weeks prior to his signature, United made it plainly evident why they needed to make his signing priority numero uno. For all the talk of Mourinho, coming with new signings, tactics, what have you; it was old problems that resurfaced against Borussia Dortmund in pre-season. United were run rugged by a sharper, quicker Dortmund side that laid bare their shortcomings in the middle of the park,  and were deservingly handed a 4-1 pasting. It was a chastening experience for Mourinho's charges, which served to highlight that they were far from the finished article, in spite of Jose's arrival.

Far from the finished article, is a term a lot of sons and daughters of God can relate with. They are a work in progress whom Jesus will complete as per his timing. He doesn't complete it in an instant. Upon receiving Jesus Christ as savior, one's struggles with sin do not automatically do a disappearing act.

Indeed God gives us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), with a desire not to sin but to walk in God's ways. He also gives us a helper, the Holy Spirit, who also emboldens us not to sin(John 15:26). However, sin's presence still hovers around us, stalking us, crouching at our door like the way it did Cain, waiting for the  slightest drop of our guard, to devour us at the opportune moment and boy oh boy, do we drop our guard.

We often fall short of his glory or holiness. Too many times to even count.This means that, as much as our noble goal, is to become like Christ, we still have our flaws that our loving savior has to chip away till he crafts the final masterpiece of his image. That we are still flawed or struggling with certain sins does not make Jesus a quack of a doctor neither does it make our salvation a sham. Rather, it just serves to illustrate the gradual process that is salvation, as opposed to the one-off event many see it as.

Our healing, molding into God's character from our diseased sinful self requires time, patience and effort it isn't a one-time thing that happens overnight.

Therefore, the struggle against sin is real. One that will be your faithful bae till death. The cast may change in that your struggles will be vary over the years but it will be the same script of struggling to overcome sin till the grave. Therefore, keeping it under wraps for fear of being labelled a back-sliding Christian is in my view, out of place. It only eats you up inside and stifles you from experiencing the true freedom that God has given you with Christ.  God's grace and mercy was not just to forgive us and to reconcile us with God. God's grace was for those moments, and they will be many of them; when we slip back to sinful habits and need his grace to remind us and reaffirm us of our identity in him in spite of the slip. Our identity is that we are sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ, sin doesn't change that one-bit.

Someone who has believed and accepted that Jesus died for his/her sin and has saved him from eternal death is a child of God. He is a son/daughter even if he struggles with substance abuse be it alcohol, cocaine, weed. He is a son even if he struggles with porn, sex addiction, masturbation, same-sex sins. She is a daughter even if she struggles with leaving the club life. She is a daughter even if she is struggling to let go of her sponsor.

Sin's constant influence or our sinful tendencies mean as children we are susceptible to get sick, that's why we need constant grace not  the 'one-time, we got this' grace. As has been said, the Church, the body of Christ(not the building) is not a club for saints, it is a HOSPITAL for SINNERS and guess what, everyone is sick.

 It is a hospital, because we are sick, and if we claim that we are not, that we are without sin, then we are lying and living in denial. (1 John 1:8) Church is a hospital, where we acknowledge we are sick and seek God to heal us through his word, through fellowship with other believers who encourage or rebuke us when they have to and  through prayer by candidly telling him about our iniquities.

There is no shame in going to hospital because you are sick, that's what sick people do. Duh!!! "I'm sick, I can't let them see, what will they think of me?!!." Seriously. Seriously.That's as counter-productive as it gets. Hiding your infirmities won't make them go away only seeking treatment will. You're sick, go to the hospital to get well and the first starting point is to admit you are sick.

 It maybe customary to hide one's struggles but it shouldn't be. Confess it. Confess your struggle or sin to an accountability partner, someone whom you trust. Confess it to an accountability group or a small group or a bible study. Will it make you any less of a child of God? No it wont. I'll tell you what it will do, it will make the guilt, the burden, the shame  go away. It will clear your conscience, give you peace of mind. enable you to experience closer fellowship with God and give you the confidence to approach his throne of grace. The heavy load on your shoulders will be no more and with that give you the chance to start over again rather than live your life of faith with a perennial noose hanging over your neck.

Life with Christ is confessing and repenting, not struggling and hiding.  Confess and Repent, is the broken record whose cover you can do even Jimmy Gait, because of your sinful inclinations that will get the better of you once in a while.

Sin is a part of who you are but  isn't it refreshing that God still loves you and me at our worst. That iniquity/struggle we have is not news to him, Our sin doesn't cause him to reel from his lofty throne and fall backwards in total shock over our shortcomings . Our loving father is well aware of our shortcomings and longs to help us overcome them if we let him, if we confess them to him in prayer and confess them in private to a fellow christian or even confess them in public.

I know it's human nature to resist disclosing one's flaws because we want to present the best/ most beautiful picture of ourselves. Ladies go all out on foundation, concealer to hide those flaws to feel beautiful. Funny how God makes us beautiful not by hiding but by revealing our flaws. Zacchaeus knew it, the Samaritan lady and Paul knew it, When we show our flaws we reveal our broken human nature but in doing so allow God to reveal his abundant grace which embellishes us by showing the world that we are not defined by our flaws but defined by our relationship with him.

Our identity in Christ plus those flaws shows the full extent of God's grace to a world who struggle to understand this divine grace of God. They get it, when they see the imperfect in us and God still loving us and are emboldened to pursue Christ, because believe it or not, who wouldn't want to be loved and accepted and affirmed in spite of the skeletons in their closet.

Therefore, child of God don't living in silent suffering, speak it out, lay it bare. God knows your struggle, It was not for the well, he came for, but the sick, there is no shame in confessing you are, neither is it sinful to struggle. The struggle is very real, and Jesus, his spirit, will in no way distance himself from you because of revealing it but will stand by your side, till that day of glorification when the struggle will be no more.