How to be miserable as a Christian - Greg Laurie - http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/how-to-be-miserable-as-a-christian/
Pastor Greg Laurie exhorts, 'Determine not to compromise in any area of your life'
When I became a Christian at the age of 17, I was sick of the life I had lived up to that point. Due to my mother's marriages, divorces and alcoholism - and the hedonistic lifestyle she lived and that I had to live with her - I saw so many things a boy should never see. I was exposed to many godless things. And I was sick of it.
Even before I was a Christian, I knew the answer was not in my mother's lifestyle. So when I heard the gospel and gave my life to Jesus Christ, I wasn't enamored with the world anymore. I was thrilled to start living the Christian life and to start growing spiritually.
But then I started running into some people who were raised in the church and were somewhat attracted to the things of this world. I would say, "Trust me when I tell you this. Been there, done that. This is a waste of life. It's a dead-end street." Still, they were fascinated by those things.
When Christians live this way, they will find themselves stuck in a miserable no-man's land of compromise. It is a self-imposed wilderness wandering, where they have too much of Christ to be happy in the world and too much of the world to be happy in Christ. And it is not the way to live.
In the book of Exodus, Pharaoh attempted to strike a series of compromises with Moses as he demanded the Israelites' release. In a final grasp of desperation Pharaoh said, "Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you" (Exodus 10:24 NKJV).
But here's what Moses told him: "Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind" (verse 26). In other words, "Pharaoh, here's the deal. Here's what you get. You get nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip. You can't even have one of our animals. You can't even have one of our sick animals. We're not leaving you anything at all. We're all leaving. It's all or nothing."
There needs to come a point in the life of a Christian where he or she says the same thing. There needs to come a point where a Christian says, "I'm tired of living a miserable life of compromise. I'm tired of living in guilt all the time because I'm doing things on the sly that I know I shouldn't be doing. I'm tired of pretending to be something that I'm not. I'm tired of this whole game I've been playing."
Conversion turns the Christian heart into a battlefield. The believer can be known by his inward warfare as well as by his inward peace. If you are a believer and aren't experiencing a spiritual battle, then something is wrong with you. Every day there will be opposition. Every day there are hassles, difficulties and temptation. It is all a part of the Christian life.
Yet some Christians expect to always have areas of weakness in their lives. They think, I'm always going to have a weakness morally, and I am always going to have a problem here. I'm always going to have a problem with thus and so. I'm always going to have this vulnerability. It's just the way it is. As long as a Christian thinks that way, then he or she always will have that problem.
Don't concede. Determine not to compromise in any area of your life. As Moses said, "Not a hoof shall be left behind." Ask God to be in control of everything that happens in your heart and life as his follower.
This doesn't mean that Christians are perfect. There isn't a day that goes by when I haven't said, thought, or done something that I wished I hadn't done. We all fall short. But there is a difference between slipping up here and there and living in a pattern of sin. We are all going to have our shortcomings and weaknesses.
The good news is that God can completely change us. The Bible says that "anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT). No sin or vice needs to have a foothold in our lives any longer. We can make a break with these things.
That is what Moses was saying to Pharaoh: "Look, we're not striking any deals with you. We're going to put distance between you and us, and we're going to get out of here."
As Joshua told the Israelites, "So fear the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped. ... Serve the LORD alone. But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:14-15 NLT).
If you are going to live for Christ, then live for Christ. If you want to go for the world, then go for the world. But don't try to do both. It doesn't work. Make a choice.
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