Why We Must Struggle in the Spiritual Life

[Michie]

“Let them grow together until the harvest.”

We have a profound experience of God’s love in the sacrament of confession. We leave the confessional and walk right into an occasion of temptation and we may even fall into the very same sins that we had just confessed in the sacrament and resolved never to commit again.

We resolve that we are not going to allow the toxic character of someone close to us to spoil our moods or kill our good attitude. We are faithful for some time and then, in a moment of poor vigilance, we give in and allow the unsavory character of another person(s) to influence us negatively.

We are not strangers to scenarios like this. We have them all the time. We may be thinking, “When am I going to get final victory over these sins and weaknesses in my life?” Or we ask, “When am I going to avoid or triumph over the negative influences of evil in the world?” We come so close to becoming discouraged because of this unrelenting struggle.

Continued below.
Why We Must Struggle in the Spiritual Life

 

[ReesePiece23]

Sometimes - in the moments just before I wake up, I wonder if we ARE the product of God experiencing Himself through us.

In the cold light of day, I realise how ridiculous I sound. I'm more Job than anyone else, and even that is being overly generous.

The book of Job helps me to embrace the struggles. If I'm struggling then I know I'm on the right path. A bit off topic, but that was my initial thought.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

I remember a sermon by a priest and he was speaking on pain and healing. He spoke that in order to heal we need to go through pain. In life we don’t go around pain, we go through it and come out the other side into healing.