Let me tell you the story of a person who decided to follow Jesus after being miraculously healed in one of our crusades. She went all out in her desire to serve, live, walk and work for Jesus. Like all of us, she made zealous commitments to God, church and even a ministry. Though that marked the beginning of her life and walk with God, what happened later was quite saddening. To protect the identity of the individual I wouldn’t go into details of what happened, but she left everything and went after vain religious traditions and worship of idols.

I was praying for this sister, and I realized the kind of struggles and challenges she went through in her pursuit of her relationship and allegiance to Jesus. Though we all live for Jesus, the fact of the matter is that we all face challenging situations in our everyday lives that tend to weaken our faith or quench our passion or love for God.

I would like to focus on a few of them in this post, though I am sure there are many more. Let us go through them together and understand what God actually wants us to do in these situations.

1. Everyday worries

Social Science has taught us that the three basic needs of every human being are Food Clothing and Shelter. It’s funny how we add many more to that list in our day and age, like a vehicle, smart phones/tablets, a partner worth one’s social status, a decent paying job, and more.

You may ask how these needs could possibly come in the way of our relationship with God. How could these need deter our faith? Why don’t we check our heart on the same? Would we love and serve God despite a few of these needs not being met?

Jesus was very clear when it came to some of these things.

Matthew 6:25-30 NLT
[25] “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life-whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?
[26] Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
[27] Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
[28] “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,
[29] yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
[30] And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

2. Hectic routines and commitments

What happens to most of us in our pursuit to meet these basic essentials in life is that we get extremely caught up either with studies, work, or the perfect career/business pursuit. Then, time becomes a very costly commodity for us. Consequently, we tend to not have time for church, or home fellowships, or even our family or personal times of prayer/bible study.

That’s why the Bible advises us:
Ephesians 5:16 NLT: Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.

We shouldn’t quote lack of time as an excuse to our relaxed walk with God. Make the most of your time in the office, at your church, during your travel, in and through everything you do, develop and pursue a relationship with Jesus.

3. Major struggles or problems

It is when we are battling with and trying to overcome these trivial situations and challenges in life in order to be able to walk with God, that major catastrophes strike us! They include things like the death of a loved one, job loss, business shut down, mounting credit card debts, etc.

Times like these make a weak believer question the love and the goodness of God, despite knowing it fully well that most often we run into these problems because of our own foolishness, and not because God pushed us into them. But Jesus offers comfort even for these times.

John 16:33 NLT: I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

4. Abundance or prosperity

The other extreme would be that some people lose their walk with God because they have abundance, when all their needs are met. So much so that, there seems to be no need to depend or walk with God on a continual basis.

Have you ever thought that your blessing could be coming in your way of your walk with God? That same job that you have been praying for ages is now making you compromise your purity and integrity?

How can we overcome our attachment to the blessings in our life?

Deuteronomy 8:11-18 NLT
[11] “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.
[12] For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
[13] and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful!
[14] Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
[15] Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
[16] He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
[17] He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
[18] Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.

5. Lack of Discipline

There are those other times when it is our lack of discipline that tends to eat up into our relationship with God. There are those people who say, there ought to be no rules or guidelines in our relationship with God since we are living in the grace period. But have you ever imagined how your relationship with your wife or husband would be if there were no rules or guidelines set up? It would be total chaos.

If we want to consistently walk with Jesus, there are those things of the world that we would have to forsake to pursue God. We might have to, at times, sacrifice our comforts or lifestyle patterns, like a lavish time of sleep, friendships or even splurges. Disciplining ourselves takes a lot of effort, and sacrifices too! But if we would yield continually to it, we would be able to see the fruit of it in the long run.

1 Corinthians 9:27 NLT: I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

What other challenges do you face in your relationship with Jesus? How do you overcome them? Please share with us in the comments below.