Sometimes we think because our salvation is free, that everything else will just fall in line and be easier. This just isn't true. Walking with Christ will cost us! A CEO I recently met with said, "Extraordinary outcomes come from extraordinary effort". Effort as a Christian looks very different than effort in the world. Everything from Christ comes through faith. Romans 15:13 shows us that hope, joy, and peace come through faith. 1 John 5:4 shows us victory over sin comes through faith. Power over Satan comes through faith - Ephesians 6:16. Obedience comes through faith - Hebrews 11:6. Everyday, we must choose whether we will believe what the devil or God has to say about us - where we will put our faith. The first lie Satan told Eve was that God was holding out on her. This lie persists in our society today - that somehow we are missing out on something by following Jesus, that His laws are outdated or don't apply for today. God's ways are perfect and He knows what is best for us! Faith is a fight, as we are reminded when Paul talks about what he faced in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27. We may find ourselves praying for the difficulties and the difficult people to leave our lives, but God has a plan through all of it. We see the story in Mark 9 of the father of the boy with an evil spirit. He asked Jesus to heal the boy and help him in his unbelief. There are different levels of belief and we must be willing to have the humility to ask God to increase our faith when our belief isn't at the level we want it to be. Like Joseph, we may not see the great plan that God has for us as it unfolds. Will we decide to swap out some of His ways for our own to "help" Him along? So often, we want the shortcut to the miracle when we don't fight in faith. God often does great things through the difficulties in our lives. We must learn to put on the full armor of God, reminding ourselves of God's goodness - that the just shall live by faith. When you just "aren't feeling it", ask yourself if you are spending more of your time on things other than God. We must remember that the devil will not stand by as we try to change the world. He will actively persecute us. If we just want to lead a quiet, comfortable life, we can't expect to see God do big things through us. Let's remember to step out in faith and trust what our spiritual eyes see, not our earthly eyes as we ask God for the difficult things so we can live by faith!

Amen!