In this final week of our study, we want to be the biggest cheerleaders of your faith. We started this six-week study being reminded that we can change. It’s possible. God is working through you—and because you were created in his image and have the Holy Spirit, you can absolutely be more like him. We’ve walked through practical ways to grow in our relationship with Jesus and turn away from our sin, and this week we want to remind you of something important:
Keep going.
Think back to the beginning of your relationship with God. Do you remember the feeling of freedom? Love? Surrender? That relationship changed everything. So how do we so often go from excited and free to then believing a lie that being more like Jesus isn’t possible for us? What got us to that point?
Following Jesus is a lifelong journey, and while we have every reason to have hope, we can quickly find ourselves doubting, second-guessing, wondering if it’s all true. But here’s what the Bible reminds us about this marathon:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2)
Your circumstances are going to change. Your emotions will ride a mental rollercoaster. Your friends and family will let you down. When everything changes, God doesn’t. He will not leave. He will not fumble. He will not stop loving you.
If you look up and see someone else “doing a better job at being a Christian,” and you think it’s not worth it:
Keep chasing God.
If you get hurt by another follower of Jesus and decide you don’t want anything to do with Jesus:
Go back to your Bible and rediscover who he is in Scripture. We’re all broken people. Don’t let someone else’s mistake define your relationship with God.
If you find yourself making the same mistake over and over to the point that it has affected you and everyone around you:
Remember that God sacrificed his Son to save you from yourself. Humble yourself in front of him, repent, and then get back up and try again.
If every part of your life crumbles around you, and you feel like you don’t know how to take your next step:
Ask God how to follow him and ask him to give you the next step.
We can keep going because of who God is. He is steadfast. He is our provider. He is our protector. He created us. He saved us. He is a good God, and he is worth it. Keep going.
I know I’ve compared myself to Christians that know the word better than I do or are quicker to turn their struggles over to God than I am. It helps me to remember lines of scripture that tell me I’m specifically and uniquely created for such a time as this and don’t compare my part of God’s story to someone else’s. Since this study I’ve tried to identify what makes me want to compare myself to another person and then I confess the sin associated with that and ask God to help me focus on my race rather than compare.
Thank you. I needed what you said regarding how you refocus. Lol. I feel like we’re in small group. I love this! ?
I don’t have the time to compare myself with other Christians. I feel like we all have problems in our lives and that our lives are tailored just for us. Just because someone else has something that we don’t we shouldn’t compare. We should be happy with what God has given us in our lives. I am happy being a single mom with four teenage boys. Does life get hard YES it does, but the beauty of it is that I know that God is right by my side helping me and being my biggest cheerleader!!!
I struggle with how conservative / reserved I should be and how vulnerable and open I am to others more than I am to God and so much more things. I hope to get more in tuned with the word to have a greater relationship and understanding of his love for me regardless of the flaws and imperfections .
Thanks for sharing EB. I was more open with people than with God for a long time. It’s a process. I found that He allowed it for a time and than worked on our friendship to the point where I felt comfortable telling him everything. I felt He allowed those people to stand in proxy for Him as I worked my way His direction. You’ll get there. Just trust Him.
Our relationship with the LORD JESUS is very personal so we don’t need to look at otter people. We need to focus on the LORD JESUS! I find it hard to push the world aside but IF I keep focused on the LORD and crying out to HIM constantly it gets more engrained in me! I need HIM all the time! I need to just talk to HIM and asking HIM to speak to me through the trials! I’m very thankful for this study as it was just what my daughter and I needed right now! It’s also helped keep me focused on the LORD JESUS ❤️
More often, I’ve found myself comparing myself to what I think a Christian is/ should be than actual people. I compare them to the same standard of perfection too and then judge. I judge both of us… and pick out the areas where I’m doing better than them (so that I can feel better about myself because I feel like crap for not meeting the standard myself). It’s rough when you don’t have a proper view of how God sees you or what He expects of you. The woman with the broken glass, Anna, her testimony spoke to me. God takes the brokenness that we feel and experience and moves us along His path little by little. He doesn’t expect us to be in a perfect place or meet this unachievable standard in our own strength. He’s there with us to help us, and He counts each little movement, each bend toward Him, as progress… each act of faith, albeit small, as righteousness (like Abraham… Ab’s acts weren’t small… just referencing that scripture about his faith being counted as righteousness.) Thank you, Jesus.
No not at all never at all, being saved being a believer, studying his word, Even on my own as a youth , trusting him with everything learning to trust him completely about everything, hoping to grow in my faith, staying in prayer, Jesus is holy, he’s the prince of peace, Jesus is the messiah, King of kings
He lives and sits at the right had of God
I definitely struggle with comparison, but I feel like it’s more in worldly ways and not Christian ways. This falls in line with my allowing the ways of the world distract me from my time with God. When I do focus on my Christian friends, it brings me back to Jesus.
Yes, I have struggled with comparing myself to other Christians. I still remember the time that God spoke to me about it while I was spot cleaning the carpet. From above the carpet looked good except for this spot that I was working to get out. But as I cleaned the spot and dug deeper below the surface things didn’t look so good. There was actually a lot of dirt underneath the surface that the vacuum cleaner hadn’t picked up. God used that to show me that what I see is only part of the story. He sees our hearts and we all have a lot of dirt in our hearts. We all have sins that we struggle with that arr between us and God. When I’m tempted to play the comparison game, I’m reminded of this lesson.
Love this. I forget that the people I envy are “real” and they aren’t as perfect as the part of them I am idolizing.
Great comments. We are talking about finishing the race strong and here I am in the last week more aware of my brokenness and need to get back in the race. Although I am late in studying this week it’s important to finish even if it goes into next week. Likes one of you shared I struggle with comparison to other Christians , those who I feel are better at it than may and unfortunately sometimes judging others. At the point of judging others the Holy Spirit will often convict me and I repent and look at myself in the mirror. We are all broken and we live in a fallen world where hurt people hurt others. God’s Word is so good. By staying in His Word it helps me refocus on Him, what He’s done and who I am in Christ. I have allowed busyness to steal time away from God instead of abiding in Him. Recently I found a journal and it amazed me to see how connected I was with God. He didn’t change, I did! And now, it is clear that I must get up and follow Him intentionally. We each have our race at this time in our respective places. We need to love God and love others and if they don’t know Jesus to let our actions speak to their hearts so others want what we have in Christ.
My first thought was that I don’t really struggle with comparing myself with other Christians. But, as I think more deeply, I actually do. I tend to think that I’m not knowledgeable or spiritually mature enough to take on leadership or even service roles in the church or to share Jesus with people. I think this comes from comparison, but to real people and to an imaginary standard. Of course its true that I have a long way to grow, but that shouldn’t stop me from serving.