Struggling While Saved
One of the biggest wrestles in walking with Jesus is when we fall short. We know Jesus died for us. We know Jesus is God. We know Jesus is our Lord and Savior — the one who is, the one who was, and the one who will be. But we fall short.
In the times when our old habits come back up. In the times when we thought we were doing so well. We fall short. And it becomes heartbreaking — knowing you're doing wrong, but not being able to stop yourself.
But here's what I want you to see: this is actually one of the biggest indicators that you're on the right path. You went from a place of no conviction — comfortable in your sin — to a place of trying to overcome it. You sin, and your own heart is breaking, because you're trying to overcome yourself. That grief is evidence that something in you has already changed.
Paul writes a very significant verse about this struggle: "For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do." (Romans 7:19) This depiction of human struggle is so powerful. Paul — the man Jesus chose Himself on the road to Damascus, the man Jesus revealed Himself to — is admitting to struggle. Knowingly doing what he doesn't want to do, while not doing what he knows he should. Paul, who wrote thirteen letters in the New Testament — helping people, changing people, pointing people to salvation — struggled with sin.
Another verse, from the Old Testament, says: "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin." (Proverbs 24:16) That word righteous is used on purpose. We see someone fall and we're quick to write them off as just a sinner. But it is in the getting up that they are shown to be righteous. It's in the overcoming. The returning. The struggle. That's where righteousness is revealed.
Look at Peter. He was told he would be the rock of the church — the foundation it would be built on. Then he denied Jesus three times and went back to his old profession as a fisherman. And Jesus met him again. Right there on the water, Jesus met him again.
You would think — how is the man who denied Jesus made to be the rock of the church? But Jesus knew he would fall. He even told him it would happen: that before the rooster crowed, Peter would deny Him three times. A prophecy spoken before it ever came to pass. Jesus is all-knowing, and He chose Peter anyway. Not once, not twice, but three times Peter denied Him — and Jesus chose him anyway.
Some of us think we have out-sinned grace. That our struggles have overcome us. That we've taken ourselves too far from Jesus to come back. But Jesus knew we would fall. And He knows our righteousness is in our getting up.
You just need to make this a turning point. Deal with your sin. Get in the Word. Keep getting up. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Allow Jesus to change you. On the other side of the struggle is freedom — the weight that lifts when you truly change. But that doesn't happen if you give up now.
Jesus knows exactly what we struggle with, and He chooses us anyway. Hear His words in John 10:27–30:
"My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
Many people ask whether it's possible to out-sin grace. These verses answer it: Jesus will never let us go. That line — "My Father… is greater than all" — is so powerful, because it reminds us the enemy will attack. The enemy will try to pull you away. But the Father is greater. Jesus will not allow anything to snatch you out of His hand.
Just don't deny Him. Be the sheep that knows His voice.
We know we will struggle. We know the enemy will attack. But on the other side of the struggle is true freedom. So make the decision to deal with your sin. Let the weight of your past lift. And "be transformed by the renewing of your mind."(Romans 12:2)
— Isaiah Abraham
