“Come to Jesus and your life will be perfect and everything will be all good!”  That statement is such a lie!  When I came to Christ, everything became harder, and life seemed only to fall apart.  Things were not perfect, and things were not amazing!  Just like anybody else going through life, it was tough and only got harder as I learned that my life would begin to change and be different than the rest of the world.  It would require me to change everything that I knew, and I would find myself trying to relearn how to live according to how God wanted me to live.

My old ways were comfortable, and I didn’t have any challenges when it came to doing what I wanted to do.  Everything was easier, my lies, my addictions, my materialism, my work, my house.  How I lived was based on getting as much as I possibly could, and it didn’t matter if I was hurting people on the way.  But through it all, there was always an emptiness, and my conscience weighed heavy with sleepless nights.  My battle was within, and it would require a new life and a new way of living to transform all that.

When I decided to stop fighting my conscience, turn away from doing evil ways and follow after Christ, it was amazing in a way that my eyes were opened to living in a new spirit.  That spirit is the spirit of God and what I saw changed me from the inside/out.  Situations didn’t get easier, in fact, they got harder but my perspective changed on how to handle each situation in my life.  My trust switched from me being my own God and manipulating each situation to try and fit my wants, to trusting the same God that changed my life in those tough times.  I now had peace knowing that no matter what happened to me, God is in control and has a purpose through it all.

Joy has taken over my life, and I know that through all things, good or bad, Christ is my strength, and there is no greater perspective than a life fully surrendered to God’s will.  I believe the reason things got harder was because I was previously playing on the Devil’s side through my lifestyle. There was no reason for him to try and take me out of this spiritual battle that is going on behind the scenes.  After I joined sides with Jesus, He has waged a war on my soul and comes at me often trying to take me out of the game.  My peace is in the fact that now, I play for the winning side.  The battle has been won, and when this war is over, I will be able to rest and enjoy Jesus without any interruption.  But until then, we have to throw on our armor and go to war.

We are in the middle of a spiritual war zone that has targets pointing at you from all directions.  The great part about all this is that God is bigger than anything the devil may throw at us, and He will use it to grow us closer to Him.  They can take our lives, but they will never take our soul when it belongs to Jesus.  So if you are on God’s side, expect life to get messy, but stand strong because you are on the winning team.  Life isn’t easy, but it is way better knowing that you are on God’s side and have a place waiting for you in heaven next to Jesus.

Don’t give up and when trials hit, because they will, TRUST GOD!