Many people believe that living as a Christian is easy, and that nothing bad ever happens to us. Instead, it is a life of heartbreak and challenges... a life where we are constantly faced with our own inequities and failures. As it says in Romans 7:19:


We live in a world full of sin, and we watch others doing things without any regard to the consequences. And our sinful nature longs to do the very same things they are doing. It is so easy to get pulled into their behaviors, and it is so easy to fail.

And even when we are strong, and we try to show people the consequences for their actions, they turn on us and chastise us for being "so judgmental" or "not allowing them freedom of religion." As it says in John 15:19:


However, just because the world "hates us," and just because we fail (a lot), that doesn't change God's love for us. God knows that we have the sin nature in us, and he knows that we are going to do things that we really don't want to do (we just get caught up in the moment, or we make ourselves believe we want to do those things).

God loved us while we were without redemption (Romans 5:8), and he promised us freedom from our sin (John 8:36) and eternal life with him (Romans 6:23). And he loves us now, even though we have failed him, and joined with the world from time to time. Even though we are not perfect, God still calls us his own children (John 1:12-13) and grants us his mercy (Proverbs 28:13) and righteousness through his Son, Jesus Christ.

And despite all the trails we are faced with, and despite the number of times we fail... in the end we will be face to face with God, and will sing songs of joy far greater than we have ever known.