When you give your heart to Christ and begin to follow Him, life does not magically become a blessed experience where never again will you experience heartache, despair and general everyday problems like the ‘non-Christian’. Have you ever met a genuine Christian whose life rolls by from one blessing to another?

I have met Christians that like to pretend this is how their life is, they have a ‘church mask’ that is worn on a Sunday to show other church goers how holy they are and just how amazing their relationship with God really is (tongue in cheek).  This masquerade they hide behind is what makes many believers feel inadequate in their faith,  even more so someone that does not know God is made to feel ‘inadequate for that Christian stuff until I have it all together’. In my experience this type of pretense is what causes a believer to doubt the love of God and those that don’t know Him feel they could never measure up to the Christian ideal. The ‘church-mask’ caused me to doubt how much God really loved me, most Sundays my inner dialogue would go something like this…  “if He really loves me, how come my life is full of calamity, and theirs is so perfect?, oh I really need to pray more, read my Bible more and stop being so grumpy with my kids”. In fact when I was at my lowest point with depression,  I would often come away from a conversation with ‘Suzy Super Christian’ and feel spiritually blackmailed as though my weak faith and depression etc. was all my fault. I was once told ‘you are not well because you are not believing your prayers’!  For two years I felt like I was a stench in the nostrils of God.  Oh if only I knew then what I know now about the love of my Heavenly Father, His Grace, His Goodness His unconditional love.

Jesus says, ‘… In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NKJV).  Jesus  knew well in advance that this life would be full of trouble, He has not promised when you believe in Him your life will be trouble-free, He has promised though that no matter what you face He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Trust me, when I gave my heart to Jesus there were no bolts of lightning tracking through the sky,  the devil did not send me a congratulations card and wipe me off his list,  what did happen though was a deep peace moved into my spirit, to this day that peace has been my anchor in the storms.

Hope Anchors the soul – Hebrews 6:19