Struggle Is Good ... Unless You Quit ! ENDURE !

Common Sense Commentary:

Struggle is an absolute essential in the reaching of goals in life, whether it be athletics, military training, college degrees, building a business or making a living. Enduring struggle is essential in surviving it. Struggle is difficult, painful, discouraging, but never easy. If it were easy, everybody would be an athletic champion, a roaring success, or a graduate. Struggle eliminates the lazy, the quitters, the indifferent and the weak. At least, the physically weak will gain strength through struggle ... IF ... they are not just lazy and... IF ... they do not quit ! Nothing worth while is easy ... including the Christian Life. "You shall be hated ... for my sake: but he that ENDURETH to the end shall be saved (safe)." Mk.13:13....... "ENDURE hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2Tim.2:3....... "ENDURE afflictions "....2Tim.4:5 ........ "ENDURE grief ...." 1Pet.2:19.............
"We count them happy which ENDURE. Ye have heard of the patience (perseverance) of Job." Jm.5:11.

I. The Apostle Paul warned us of hardship and STRUGGLE in Christian Growth. "We are troubled on every side, perplexed, persecuted, cast down ... bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus may be seen in us." 2Cor.4:8-10. ...... BUT "...All these things are for your sakes (for your good)." v.15. ........ "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." v.17. Struggle is Good !


Paul didn't just preach it; he lived that life of STRUGGLE as a faithful witness for Christ..... In hard labor, in prisons frequently, in danger of death often, beaten five times with thirty nine stripes (195 scars on his back), stoned three times, shipwrecked, long walking journeys, perils in the sea, perils of robbers, perils of the jews, and of the heathen, in the cities, in the wilderness, perils among false Christians, weariness, painfulness, hunger, thirst, fastings often, cold and nakedness, plus the care of the churches ..... But we glory in tribulations ... knowing that tribulation worketh patience (perseverance): and patience experience, and experience hope and hope makes us unashamed. 2Cor.11:23-27. Hard times teach us not to be afraid of hard times like hard work teaches us not to be afraid of hard work and we grow stronger in perseverance to endure the struggles. Struggle is Good !


II. The patience (perseverance) of Job grew out of his STRUGGLE with long months of pain, loss, loneliness and complete ruin. He lost his children, wife, health, friends, and almost his hope .... It was stretched to the limit .... but he cried out, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
Job gave this testimony, "I was at ease, but God hath broken me asunder: He hath also taken me by my
neck and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark (target)." "But He knows the way that I take: When
He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23:10. Struggle is Good !


III. David STRUGGLED with sin, betrayal and sorrow. "I have eaten ashes ... and mingled my drink with weeping. Because of thine indignation and thy wrath : for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down."Psm.102:9. When David reached the bottom of his sin and emotional pain, he repented and God healed and forgave him. "Before ... I was afflicted, I went astray: But Now I have kept thy word." Psm.119:67.
Struggle is Good !

IV. Naomi STRUGGLED with the loss of her family and with God's redirection of her life. She, and her husband had taken their two sons out of God's will, in Bethlehem, and went astray down to Moab. There she lost everything but gained a daughter-in- law, Ruth. God led her to return to Bethlehem where her old friends greeted her with a question. She had aged and they asked, "Is this Naomi ???" Naomi answered, "don't call me Naomi (pleasant) call me Mara (bitter) for the almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty."
Ruth 1:20-21. Yes, she was broken, broke and bitter, but God used her brokenness and poverty to place her in a vital and strategic spot in the genealogy of Jesus which went through Ruth, who married Boaz.
Struggle is Good !

V. STRUGGLE is exercise, physical, mental and spiritual. "No chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are EXERCISED thereby." Heb.12:11. Struggle strengthens your character, weakens your rebellion, moderates your excesses, burns out your hidden sins, purifies your mind, diminishes your selfrighteousness, increases your compassion for others and expands your love for God and His people. Looking back on my own life, I can now see clearly that the hard, painful and fearful days of my life, that seemed so terrible at the time, have turned out to be beautiful stepping stones into the will and purpose of God for my life. With the Apostle Paul I can say, "We glory in tribulations .... knowing that tribulation worketh patience (perseverance). Rom.5:3. The Apostle Peter had the same testimony.... "The God of all grace .... after you have suffered a while, (will) make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." 1Peter 5:10. Struggle is Good !

STRUGGLE Is Good !!! IF you do not Quit. Hard times will either make you or break you .... depending on how you take them and if you do not Quit. Struggle is Good IF you do not give in, and IF you do not give out, and IF you do not give up, and IF you do not Quit. Struggle is Good !

When things go wrong as they sometimes will .....
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill ....
When funds are low and the debts are high ....
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh....
When care is pressing you down a bit ....
Rest, if you must, but DON'T YOU QUIT. .....
Life is strange with its' twists and turns. ....
As everyone of us sometimes learns. ....
And many a failure turns about. ....
When he might have won had he stuck it out: ....
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow.....
You may succeed with another blow.....
Success is failure turned inside out ....
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt. ....
And you never can tell how close you are. ....
It may be near when it seems so far. ....
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit. ....
It's when things seem worst that you MUST NOT QUIT !
Author Unknown

Struggle is Good ! Pass it on. RB