Truth - Following God is hard.

No matter what you will come across trials of some sort. Sometimes they could be personal challenges, persecution for your beliefs or maybe just plain distraction. There’s no promise that following God will be the easy path. In fact God has told us that we are blessed when we are persecuted for his sake (Matt 5:11-12).

I couldn’t see why this was such a good thing. "Great, God. Wonderful news. Crap will come. Bad things will keep happening, people will reject me, new challenges will stop by to overwhelm me all the time. This is Your plan for me, then?"

I’d heard all of the verses about trials building perseverance (James 1:2-4, Rom 5:3-5), but perseverance wasn’t a word that meant much to me. Whenever I heard it, my memory would recall this annoying and peppy children’s tape that mockingly sang "If you don’t lose heart..."

You know those moments when it seems like only bad things are happening? And it’s like this stuff is only happening to you? When life is cutting you no breaks? One time, when I hit this point, I asked my mom to pray for me. She did, and typical of her, sent me a sort of checklist response (Often I wonder if she doesn’t have God hooked up to some little computer that generates prayer requests).

The list read as follows:

* Remember that the joy of the Lord is your strength (2 Cor 4:8-9, Neh 8:10)

I couldn’t argue with this one. Nothing countered the funk that bad news put me in like reflection on God’s amazingness and the joy that comes with it.

* Let the joy of the Lord speak (1 Thess 5:16-18)

It did help - to talk with other Christians about God’s blessings, to worship, to pray. I began to realize that this infinite love and power was much bigger than me.

* Remember that you have the armor to fight off evil (Eph 6:13-18)

God hadn’t left me defenseless. I had been prepped with so many "weapons" (you’ll have to read the verse to find out what they are).

* God has already won the battle (Josh 6:2, 2 Chr 20:12, 15-17)

God cares about each individual struggle, wants to take on our battles and determine the outcome. We just have to be willing to follow God's plan.

(Amy Bailiff is 19.)