Perseverance

Sometimes I wonder how it is that I can still struggle with the same sins but feel as though I have a sincere faith in Christ. Why is it that we struggle so much?

I found a great passage in Sam Storms book Signs of the Spirit that points to a great theme of Christianity: perseverance.

"There is hardly anything more explicit in the teachings of Jesus himself than the rules by which we are to judge the sincerity of someone's profession o faith. we must judge the nature of the tree by the quality of its fruit. But if the fruit of saving virtue is subject to being counterfeited, what good is this as a rule for discerning true from false? The answer is found not in the mere presence of what appears to be fruit, but in its perseverance. If the fruit shows itself not merely once, no matter how fervently and sweetly, but endures and matures over time and through trial, we can more solidly judge whether they are be truly of God (although even then our judgement is still fallible).

I quote Same Storms not because I'm particular interested in judging (or meditating) on whether others are sincere in their faith, but whether I am.

Paul writing in his 1st letter to the Corinthians:

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, [2] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (ch. 9).

Father, give me the strength to run the race with perseverance. Give me endurance, Father. In Jesus name, Amen.

Signs of the Spirit

Why am I not stirred more to know God?

Sam Storms writes:

If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart....

If our thesis is correct, and true spirituality lies in the experience, enjoyment, and expression of holy affections, it is to our shame that we are no more affected with the great truths of Scripture than we are. This is especially the case when we consider how profoundly moved and affected people are by world things that have little if anything to do with God and the revelation of himself in the face of Jesus Christ.

Oh, how easily I am distracted and blind to the greatness of the gospel.

Jonathon Edwards asks:

But is there anything which Christians can find in heaven or earth, so worthy to be the objects of their admiration and love, their earnest and longing desires, their hope, and their rejoicing, and their fervent zeal, as those things that are held forth to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

....All the virtues of the Lamb of God, his humility, patience, meekness, submission, obedience, love and compassion, are exhibited to our view, in a manner the most tending to move our affections, of any that can be imagined; as they all had their greatest trial, and their highest exercise, and so their brightest manifestation, when he was in the most affecting circumstances; even when he was under his last sufferings, those unutterable and unparalled sufferings he endured, from his tender love and pity to us."

Quotes are from Signs of the Spirit: An Interpretation of Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections by Sam Storms.