Can u b a Christian & still struggle ovecoming?

Hi carters. Yes of course you can be a true believer in Christ and struggle with every day things such as anxiety and fear etc. These things are not evidence that we are not saved, they are evidence that we have a natural life. The spiritual life we have is spiritual. It only becomes outwardly evidenced when we learn to walk in that life. Its a life which God gives us when we believe in Christ as our Saviour but it is a life which underpins and informs our own life of emotions, thoughts and even our will power.

I wouldn't worry too much about the pastor unless the Lord gives you a burden for him. I feel sure he will know what to make of the business of the two brethren who put him to an open shame. If he seems to have taken it in a right spirit then he is doing just fine. Defending himself would have been a more difficult thing. Although even this would have been understandable. His acknowledgement that he gets riled at some of the things on television just means he is being honest and of a humble spirit. He could have just said nothing at all.

Of course there are those in the body who seem to have a greater victory over their lives and they no doubt can be a source of admiration. Yet in the end it is what is going on inwardly which is where reality can be found as far as God is concerned. Not only our own lives but the way we affect others. Some brethren do have a more focussed way of thinking about ordinary things and this may be ok if it produces a good outcome in the end. If not then we ought to ask the Lord to show us what is wrong with us, if our understanding is right. It may mean waiting a while to see the results, but in the end if we simply discourage others and our speech produces no good thing, we should really consider repenting ourselves.

Most people who know me personally would never believe that inwardly I was the most anxious person imaginable until I was about 39 years old. So much so that I became ill on it. Yet outwardly I seemed to be the most confident person alive. I was a real power house of activity and achievement. Then one day it all became too much and I lost the cover of my activities and realised myself that I was anxious and that this really meant that I wasn't trusting the Lord in the way I thought I was. It came as a real shock and caused me years of sadness and pain. Nowadays I don't have to cover up anything to myself or others. At the time I didn't even realise that my many activities were even a cover at all. I thought I was just serving the Lord. These two brethren are just men and they may have more inward difficulties than they are even aware of themselves. No need to expose people at all. We just have to pray for them.

Well my friend this is true in some measure for all of us because although being anxious is a normal fleshy reaction to life, it is pride which makes it really harmful. Those who's problems are written on their face are much more honest and much less likely to lead anyone astray. The two brethren at the meeting have disappointed you because you have seen the injustice of the way they have dealt with their pastor. Perhaps you have seen his own loss in this as well. Thats the stuff of prayer and when the Lord answers it and works it out, it is the stuff of faith building. I am glad you have a good confidence in God yourself, thats really important otherwise you might go after them and then who will be leading you then? Stand with your pastor and the Lord will bless you in it. Is he a sound man? Then stand with him.

What happened after you realised your weren't trusting God, how did you learn to do this better? Carters

It took me some months to accept that I was anxious even after I realised it. It wasn't difficult to understand why I was anxious in the first place. There was never any doubt about the Lord and my faith in the Lord didn’t diminish even at the worst times. What I missed for fifteen years was an understanding that anxiety is much more than just reasonable nervousness or shyness or even being self conscious. I also missed the fact that I was unknowingly trying to compensate for this state of mind by being over assertive about life itself. Others saw me as a successful and strong man, yet inwardly I was very weak. It hit me like a sledge hammer and for the first time in my life I realised that I was just a man like all other men; that most people experience anxiety and have self doubts and they don’t go about like mad men trying to cover it up through fear.

After that I went through a process of repenting, because I realised that anxiety, whilst it is understandable for some people due to their experiences of life, was of course a thing of the flesh. I so wanted to walk in the spirit, that for a while I became quiet depressed with life in the sense that I couldn’t find a way to break out of realising that I wasn’t special or gifted, but just driven and that what the Lord had given me in the spirit was for His benefit and not just my own. That is the evil pride of life. Most of my activities in life since I was converted at aged twenty four years had contributed to an inner delusion that I was strong in myself, to which I simply added the knowledge of the Lord. Even though I should have realised it many many years ago, even from being a small child, I simply didn’t connect with my own weakness. Once I realised that I was in fact weak I had no choice but to really seek the Lord and find another way to live life and serve Him. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that everything I had done in the previous fifteen years was a waste of time. It wasn’t, and knowing that the Lord was still the most important reality in life, kept me. Many people who are in fact vulnerable because of severe abuse in their childhood either fold completely and it shows in their every decision, or because of the evil pride of life they overcompensate and in the process they hurt others because they fail to see that weakness is nothing to the Lord because He will not hurt us even when His discipline and ways seem deeply challenging. Being driven by fear or anxiety disguises ones inner reality and so everyone else thinks you are a superman of some kind and relies on you for everything. Its a dangerous place to be in because it is unsustainable.

On the other hand in the Lord it is possible to be truly strong through trusting the Lord to live in and through you. I have been through a similar learning curve with regards to my children. I was and still am strong for them. I have resisted every wickedness and false thing for them and kept them from harm and deception. Yet even in this they reached an age when I had to learn to trust the Lord and at the same time release them into adulthood and responsibility before the Lord for themselves. Strangely this is just normal life, the only difference may be the degree to which you doubt your own worth before the Lord realising your own efforts and lack of trust. I have no excuse, because the Lord saved me in a wonderful and clear way. It took me fifteen years to learn that His love for me never changes and my responsibility lies in trusting Him in all things. It took me another ten years to learn that I can trust Him with my children as well.

Just don’t be afraid to be weak, and don’t be strong through pride in order to cover weakness up. Weakness is a wonderful gift. When I was saved I asked the Lord why he had allowed me to go through such a terrible and traumatic childhood. I wasn’t in any way angry with the Lord. I knew that He had kept me, despite everything. The Lord spoke to me clearly. “Because I want you the way you are”. It was fifteen years before than made sense to me. It is a truly strange business serving the Lord because He wants us to trust Him, and we don’t realise that in so many ways we simply don’t know how to do it. I can bear witness that the Lord has never let me down once. And when I have been minded to ask, He has always provided sure relief. He has been just and reasonable in everything. Praise His holy name!