Until Christ be formed in you

Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you

Travail in birth - until Christ be formed in you.

Painful, life is painful and you won't find any one that will tell you different. No one escapes the pain, not a single person. Some deal with the pain a lot better than others, but it doesn't mean their pain is any less. We learn from a very young age that there is pain- emotional pain involved in life. Growing up isn't easy, ask most kids and they'll tell you right off that it's not easy. Learning to behave is a trial of successes and errors. We make a mistake and we learn from the mistakes, sometimes it takes making several of the exact same mistakes before we really realize that we need to learn something. Unfortunately sometimes people never learn and keep making mistakes over and over again, the same ones even. We often learn by the degree of punishment we receive. A stern no might deter a child from touching something they aren't supposed to touch, and a stern no plus a hand tap might further deter them. A stern no and a firm spanking on the behind will get the point across even more. We all hope as parents that our children will learn from our verbal reprimands first, and even our time outs and other non-touch punishments but that's not always the case. Misbehavior and punishments go hand in hand. Mistakes and punishments go hand in hand. We all understand this as part of our growing and learning process. It's no different for our spiritual rebirth. We will suffer much as we go through our spirit birthing, and that birthing will continue until we are fully Christ's. The rebirthing process starts but won't be complete until our Savior returns.

Too many people believe the rebirthing into our new lives is instantaneous. Too many are under the impression that when they are born again they are born into this new creature that automatically abhors the old creature and all that old creatures sin filled ways. And Satan is eager for people to believe it isn't a life long process so he'll hang back and things will be amazing. You'll feel this sense of newness in your life, things will change in many ways. Then inevitably one, two months, six months, a year, maybe even two to five years later suddenly things won't seem quite the same any longer and that sense of closeness to Christ will have worn off and problems will seem insurmountable. The old man inside will be struggling to rear its ugly head and the fight is on, and all the while that impression you had of how it was supposed to be will have been obliterated and you'll begin to question everything. You'll lose faith and crash all the while wondering what happened to that new man you'd become so long ago.

The truth of the matter is- after choosing to accept Christ as our Savior we do BEGIN a new life. That new life is a LIFE LONG process of choosing Christ as our Savior no matter what we go through. Daily choosing Christ, and yes, sometimes choosing Christ moment by moment. We cannot afford to believe being a Christian is taking the smooth easy road in life, it's a life of suffering we are called to and we can find joy in that suffering because we know we are living for eternal life not for the life we have now here on earth.

Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you

Travail in birth. Such a metaphor. One we NEED to take to heart. All who are Christ's will experience this painful process… Paul did and Paul knew those he was guiding to Christ would go through it as well.

Remember this from yesterday--

1Pe 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin

Suffering.

We suffer. We think we shouldn't have to suffer when we are plainly told we will suffer. We need to think ahead of time how we should handle our suffering. And even as I say that I realize that everyone has different suffering to endure, not all suffering is on the same level. In all suffering though we HAVE to keep our Savior first and foremost, don't we? From the smallest amount of suffering to the greatest suffering our Savior must come first. We cannot lose our faith as it is tried to the uttermost. We have to hang on to our hope, hang on to the promises given to us. We might not have anything even remotely close to a good life here and now, in fact we might have one of the worst lives ever and still we need to keep our hope in Christ and the promise we are given through Him.

If we could just get it through our minds some how and into our hearts that this life is temporary to eternity how much better off would we be?

No, I'm not saying that we don't want to have a good life here and now, it would be strange not to want good things instead of hard things, instead of bad things for ourselves and for others. The reality is though that we are fighting a battle, a war with Satan and he will NOT let things go easy for us, or if he does choose to let them go easy for us it's with deceptive purposes knowing that easy life can just as well lead us down his path and not God's.

Please Lord, please help us to understand your truth, help us to be Yours fully. Please Lord this life is so incredibly hard in so many ways and even while it's hard we know others have it immensely harder. Save us Lord, we cannot save ourselves without Your love, Your sacrifice, Your amazing grace! Please Lord, give us understanding, give us compassion, help us as we grow and travail as we seek to be more and more like You.

In Your love!

Amen.