There is a version of Christianity that sounds very appealing.
Come to Jesus and your life will get better. Your marriage will improve. Your finances will straighten out. Your children will behave. Your worries will disappear. Doors will open. Problems will fade. Life will become easier.
Certainly, Jesus changes lives. He restores broken people. He gives wisdom, hope, peace, purpose, and forgiveness. He can restore marriages and rescue people from addictions. He can bring healing to broken hearts and direction to confused lives.
But there is a significant difference between saying Jesus changes your life and saying Jesus makes your life easy.
Jesus never promised His followers an easy life.
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus said:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Those are not words of comfort-centered Christianity.
Jesus did not say, “Follow Me and everything will work out exactly the way you want.”
He said, “Take up your cross.”
For the disciples listening to Jesus, a cross was not a piece of jewelry or a decoration on a church wall. It represented suffering, humiliation, sacrifice, and death.
Jesus was telling them that following Him would cost something.
And for millions of Christians throughout history, it has.
There are believers today who have lost relationships because they became Christians. In some parts of the world, someone who leaves Islam to follow Christ may be rejected by family members. Others who leave controlling religious groups or cults may lose nearly every relationship they have ever known.
Some Christians have lost jobs.
Others have lost homes.
Some have been imprisoned.
Some have even lost their lives.
Their Christianity did not make life easier.
It made life harder.
Yet they still chose Christ.
Why?
Because Jesus is worth more than comfort.
Sometimes American Christianity can become so accustomed to convenience that we begin expecting God to remove every difficulty from our lives.
When trouble comes, we wonder whether we have done something wrong.
When opposition comes, we wonder whether we misunderstood God.
When obedience becomes difficult, we wonder whether we should turn around.
But Scripture tells a different story.
Noah obeyed God and was surrounded by unbelief.
Moses obeyed God and immediately faced Pharaoh.
Daniel obeyed God and ended up in a lions’ den.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego obeyed God and were thrown into a furnace.
Paul obeyed God and experienced imprisonment, beatings, shipwreck, hunger, and rejection.
Even Jesus was obedient to the Father and was crucified.
Obedience does not always produce comfortable circumstances.
Sometimes obedience produces conflict.
But here is the difference Christianity makes:
We never face that conflict alone.
Jesus said in John 16:33:
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Notice that Jesus did not deny the tribulation.
He promised victory in the middle of it.
He also promised His presence.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
That is one of Christianity’s greatest promises.
Jesus did not promise to keep us away from every battlefield.
He promised to walk onto the battlefield with us.
He did not promise there would never be tears.
He promised that He would be near when the tears come.
He did not promise we would never experience loss.
He promised that nothing can separate us from His love.
Maybe today you are walking through something difficult and wondering why following Jesus has not made everything easier.
Perhaps you are asking, “Lord, why is this so hard?”
There may be another question worth asking:
“Lord, how can I be faithful in the middle of this?”
Difficulty does not necessarily mean that God has abandoned you.
Sometimes the narrow road is difficult because it really is the narrow road.
The Christian life may not always be easy.
But if Jesus is walking beside us, it is always worth it.
