I would like you to respond with what your most common struggles and temptations are, whether you are a christian or not. I will use as much info as I get to help preach to a youth group soon.
Also, I believe that relationships with unsaved people is the most common reason people walk away from the Lord. (At least that I see) Do you agree?
Thanks and God bless.
I'm a 19 year old male, and my greatest struggle is definitely lust, I keep giving my heart, mind and body to God, and I trust in and for His deliverance everyday. I appreciate you "polling" everyone so to speak, but I think the greatest issue for young men is definitely lust and an addiction to entertainment. My generation cannot step away from the cell phone, computer or television. I pray everyday for God to turn my heart more and more towards Him and away from the world.
Good question!
Here is a few things.
1. flirting with the opposite gender, 2. petting in courtship, 3. for young men noticing immodest dressed women, immodest billboards, immodest magazines, immodestly on the Internet, 4. struggles with their devotional life, 5. bad shows on the TV (I am personally against TV all together), 6. peer pressure at public school, 7. feel like they are missing all the fun in the world.
I am a young Christian man, 26 going on 27, most of the struggles that I have had to deal with in my Christian life have had to do with significance, loneliness or lust. The root of all of these problems has to do with unbelief.
If I believe what the bible has to say about the promises of God towards me, then there is no reason for me to struggle with feeling significant -my need to feel significance is only fulfilled when I am filled with Jesus.
When I became a Christian I made a decision to wait on the Lord and seek a woman also waiting on the Lord. The problem with waiting on the Lord is that you have to submit to his time frame. I think I would have gotten married at 21 or 22 if I was a unbeliever, and I would have probably been divorced by now. My natural inclination would be to get to know as many girls as possible and see who I could hit it off with, however I know this isn't what God's will for my life is. So I spend most of my time evangelizing, spending time with Christian brothers and reading -not exactly the hip and cool life of a 26 year old that most people imagine. I don't just want to meet a nice girl and settle for her, I want to meet the girl that Jesus wants for me, and for that I need to be willing to wait.
I am a guy, as a guy I like girls. God wired men to like women, the way they sound, the way they smell, the way they look -and in a marriage relationship those things are a blessing for a man. They are also a curse when they become objects of lust. I think lust has to be the most epidemic problem among young Christian men, and one of the ways that Satan is undermining the church in America. As long as Christian men are flirting with the prostitutes of this world, they will not be effective in reaching this generation -many of them are being made ineffective by their lusts, and this is my own testimony. I used the word prostitute, because that is how God sees a world given over to lust, not just literal prostitution, but anything that would elevate the sexual and sensual above the spiritual.
If I believe the bible and what God says, I would have no part in sexual immorality, because that is what God says! Plain and simple, no ifs ands or buts. If I believe the bible and what Jesus says, then I know that waiting for God and his promises is superior to indulging in anything this world has to offer. The problem is unbelief -and our churches are filled with unbelieving 'believers,' of whom I often realize I am myself, I needed to repent, I needed to get into the word ad find out what God says about himself and about me.
Last night I spent a few hours reading in the Old Testament, and felt particularly called to repentance. I went to a park near Ueno here in Tokyo. Ueno is one of the 'darker' places here in Tokyo, with lots of love-motels, gambling and night clubs, but I had arranged with one of my contacts to meet there for dinner, and I had a couple hours beforehand to read and pray. There are a lot of things to tempt the eyes in Ueno, pretty girls in skimpy outfits, even though it is getting quite cold. A lot of those girls are there just because of the party atmosphere, but I have always been aware in the back of my mind that many of those girls are there to make money selling their bodies also.
The cafe that I was at closed at 6:30 and I had an hour until I was going to meet my friend at 7:30, so I walked to the park and sat down and looked up at the sky and prayed, and sang a couple of Christmas hymns to myself. An older woman sat down about 10 feet away and I wasn't paying much attention. As I was praying she came over and started asking me some questions, and I wasn't prepared for any Japanese conversation, so I simply said 'Nihongo-wa wakarimasen' (I don't understand Japanese) but she kept repeating herself... she said something like 'puray' and I though, oh, she must have seen me praying. So I offered her a copy of the Gospel of John in Japanese which she promptly refused, then she kept asking the same question over and over, I couldn't concentrate because of the scent of cigarette smoke on her breath, she kept saying 'seckoosoo puuraay,' then I finally realized that she wasn't trying to say something to me in Japanese, she was trying to say something in English, she was prostituting herself, she was saying 'Sex pay.'
It was one of the most sad things I have ever seen in Japan -a woman old enough to be my mother, in a dark park, prostituting herself. I left the Gospel of John there next to her as I walked away, and I got to a bench about 100 feet away and wept and prayed for her and for Japan. I wept over my own sins as well, because I had been so distracted by the pretty girls in Ueno, many of whom were in the same sad and spiritual condition as the woman at the park.
I don't know why I wrote this, maybe because its fresh in my mind... but I think God had answered my prayer about my lust with that encounter. He showed me just a glimpse of what he sees when he looks at the world in this sin. There was nothing attractive about that old woman in the park -there was nothing to lust over -it was actually disgusting in a stomach churning way. That is how God sees all sexual immorality.
I am praying to keep this understanding fresh in my mind, so that I won't be tempted to look on women lustfully any longer. I am praying to have deeper faith and belief in Jesus and the Word of God. Only when I know Jesus more can I see the world the way that he does.
I am reminded of the hymn 'Turn your eyes upon Jesus.' The chorus goes:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
When we are looking at Jesus, all the pretty girls in the world who flaunt their bodies as objects to lust after will not seem attractive at all, they will seem like that old prostitute in the park near Ueno.
iansmith:
Perhaps you should stay away from parks like that.
The park is not a problem. Its actually located in what is considered one of the nicer parts of Tokyo. Usually there are a lot of homeless people that bed down in the park at night -but it was only about 7pm, not exactly the time you expect to be solicited by a prostitute!
But then again, the problem is with the nation, with humanity, not with that park -the park never did anything wrong to anyone =)
iansmith,
What a wonderful object lesson the Lord has put before you! All things of the flesh fade away - only the things of the Spirit have lasting beauty - only the things of the Spirit are everlasting.
This is hard to see when we are young and beautiful, and unfortunately, by the time we get old, most of our hearts have grown hard and cold and we no longer have the ability to see the distinction.
I don't just want to meet a nice girl and settle for her, I want to meet the girl that Jesus wants for me, and for that I need to be willing to wait.
Flamoffire, I am 24 years old and I am right with you on all of those things. Blasted computer games. If I get rid of the one I play, I just go get another one. Such a waste of time.
Bobmuch, I know what young people struggle with, I wanted to know what you struggle with. Thanks though.
Iansmith, man I appreciate your story. I truly pity that woman. How blind we can be. A time in my life, I may have accepted that offer and thought I was doing no wrong.
Heartsong, you didn't even say what you struggle with :) God bless you anyways. LOL.
Heartsong, you didn't even say what you struggle with :) God bless you anyways. LOL.
I am not sure if it applies here, but my greatest struggle is figuring out how to have a relationship with other Christians.
And as to your second question, I can not figure out how anyone that knows the Lord could ever walk away from Him.
Hi Matt,
Also, I believe that relationships with unsaved people is the most common reason people walk away from the Lord. (At least that I see) Do you agree?
As a youth pastor I typically see 3 things that spell the end of many youth serving God:
1) A job
2) A car
3) A boyfriend/girlfriend
But you ask what do I struggle with? Well, as a young man I was not born again though I knew the Lord in a sense. I struggled to understand that God really loves me. I had never read scriptures like:
[color=000066] But God, who is rich in mercy, for his [u]great
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
That in the ages to come he might shew the [u]exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us
I believe that children need to be taught the fear of the LORD, but that also they need it balanced with the grace of God and the love of God. When I committed a sin, I used to 'feel' (I'm choosing my words carefully here) like God didn't love me anymore. I felt like I needed to run from God. I believe this was due to a lot of unsound indoctrination that took decades to break off.
If you may have seen the conference I got up and shared a few things in a morning session. One of the things God delivered me from the night Carter Conlon preached was the bondage of years of unbiblical ideas. God by His Spirit somehow broke that off. I traveled some 4500 miles for a week with the Lord and since I have returned I smile a whole lot more than ever. I get excited about things. The heaviness is [u]gone
I suggest that you minister to the youth with an ear towards hearing from the Lord the word of His grace. That's to say, to understand that every person is different and that God has a 'word of grace' for the hearts of those that are there [i]individually[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akzs6yt0Mjg&feature=PlayList&p=A560AC482AB32B2D&index=9]HERE.
Hi, Matt. Bet you didn't think I still came around here, ha. Not sure if you'll see this, I see it's been a few weeks since you logged on here.
I agree with your second subject: that relationships with unsaved people are the most common thing that lead people away from God. How could it not? Christians need fellowship with other believers--to be yoked together with those who believe the same way. To some extent, I'm a little nervous with people fellowshipping with Christians with such vast differences, like the subject of speaking in tongues, for example. Like if, say Bob believes in speaking in tongues but is best friends with Joe, who doesn't. Bob therefore can't exercise that part of the gift God has given him in tongues whenever he's around Joe. Make sense? Friendship with unsaved people works the same way in that it works as an inhibitor. It's compromise, one way or another.
And to answer your first question, my most common struggles are wasting time (Smash Brothers, anyone? :-) ) and fellowship. We don't get as much fellowship as we feel we need as Christians, and when we do, it's not like it used to be, know what I mean? It's a struggle, but we survive; we just have to fight harder and trust in God more and more each day.
Hope you're doing well, and hope things went okay, assuming the speaking engagement you previously spoke of has already happened.
Oh, and thanks for sharing that recipe with Rita for those "cookies." She says hers weren't as pretty as yours, but at least they tasted good. ;-)
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