You might be sitting there feeling all alone in your Christian walk, like there’s no one else on earth who is going through what you’re going through. Your situation is so unique that no one’s had to deal with it.
You feel lost and confused, unsure of what to do next.
Sometimes, the Christian experience can be a lonely one. That’s one very important reason to be involved in your local church (need help finding a good, local church? Here’s a resource for ya!) ❤️
👉 The good news is that you’re NOT alone. We all experience so many different things in life and sometimes, it’s really important to our souls to know that others experience these things too and that we’re not going at it all by ourselves!
Point is, you’re not alone in what you’re experiencing, which can bring you a bit of comfort today as you struggle through to find solid ground. 🤗
7 Things Every Genuine Christian Goes Through
1) Doubt
While a genuine believer who has been saved a while and has seen the hand of God in their lives may not doubt their salvation, there are many times where we feel tempted to doubt other things.
- Doubt God has control over something
- Doubt He cares about it
- Doubt He’s working on it
- Doubt there’s a God in the first place
So many doubts can creep up in our lives over time and Satan just LOVES to push doubts into our minds, trying to get us to stumble and fall (Genesis 4:7).
There are a couple really fantastic songs worth listening to that address some doubts and then how to fix them. In both songs you can really see how one small, tiny doubt can really affect your WHOLE LIFE and start you down a path that negatively impacts a lot of things.
The first song is What Ifs.
She’s clearly been hurt and we can all understand the pain of past relationships, but I love how he turns it all upside down and says, “What if the sky falls or the sun stops burning? We could worry about them what ifs ’til the world stops turnin’ OR…..” We could not worry about it. I’m not here to play games and I’m trying to set your mind at ease.
It reminds me very much of Psalm 46:1-3. Even if the mountains take a dive into the ocean 😮, we STILL shouldn’t worry. God’s got things under control. We CAN trust Him with everything! 💯
The second song is The Fighter.
For every single “what if” SHE has, he’s right there to reassure her, line for line. It’s really important to think on things that are TRUE (Philippians 4:8) and take ALL (every single one of them) of our thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). Does the thought line up with Scripture?
For the believer, that’s exactly where we get our reassurance! The Bible!!
How to fix it: The best solution for your doubt is to go straight to the Word of God. Start searching around the pages of Scripture to see what the Bible has to say on the topic you’re doubting on.
Are you doubting God exists? John 1:1-2 is great to read. God exists from the beginning. Do you believe it? If you’re doubting, do you believe other parts of the Bible?
See, we can’t just pick and choose some verses to believe in and not others. By believing SOME of the Bible, we’re saying we believe all of it. And that verse says God exists, so if you believe the Bible, you believe God exists. 😊
Get to know God, His attributes, everything He does for us. You’ll be able to see His hand in your life pretty quickly and know that He indeed exists. Do that with each and every doubt you have, lining your heart and thoughts up with God’s until all your doubts are complete eradicated! ❤️
2) Loss of friends due to beliefs
As you travel through life, you’re going to meet some people that just don’t believe the way you do. It is NOT for Christians to go around choking down the Word of God and our beliefs on them. We can offer the truth to people, when appropriate, but never forcing anyone, only sharing out of a deep love for the other person.
Sometimes, you’ll lose friends over your beliefs, and that’s okay! We are called to live in peace, so let them go on their way and you go on yours. If you should talk again, be kind, loving, and understanding, but don’t change your beliefs and what the Bible is clear on for others in order to keep relationships. You can’t sell out.
How to fix it: Understand that in life, this will happen and is common to man. Don’t be surprised when it does, but DO your best to keep the relationship as much as it depends on you in order that you help, serve, and edify others, leading and pointing them to Jesus Christ.
3) Loneliness
Sometimes, when you lose a friend due to your faith, you’ll feel lonely. For me, I lost my ex-husband because of my faith. He asked me to give up God or he’d leave and I told him I wouldn’t give up God. He asked me if I was sure. I said yes, and he left.
I can’t tell you there’s not times in my singleness where I’m not lonely. It’s tough being alone, but I did what was right and I don’t regret it. I know that in God’s precious time, He will bring me someone who loves me and redeems me. We’ll get married and have an amazing life. In the meantime, I wait on God and trust Him that He knows what He’s doing. 💯
All Christians experience loneliness at times. It’s completely normal to have those feelings sometimes.
How to fix it: Surround yourself with godly people who lift you up. Get more involved in church, hang out with friends more, spend more with God, smell 100% pure Marjoram essential oil. I break that oil out ever time I start feeling lonely and it always helps! 💕
4) Trials
Everyone goes through trials, whether you’re a believer or not. It’s just a part of life. Bad things happen to everyone (Matthew 5:45) but how we deal with those trials is important. The very FIRST thing I always ask God anytime I’m going through something tough, “What are you wanting me to learn here?”
I’ve found that by figuring out exactly what He wants me to learn and then learning it, I can speed through those trials a lot faster and get safely to the other side of them. We still have to go through trials, but we can cut the time down IN those trials by learning quickly what He’s trying to teach us. 😊
How to fix it: Is there anything He’s trying to teach you today? Is there anything in your life you’re rebelling in, not obeying Him on fully and completely? Can you pray and ask Him to show you? Can you try to learn it quickly?
Understanding your life from HIS angle, is so important. Having spiritual eyes, instead of keeping our eyes on the flesh, will really keep you close to the Lord and out of trouble a lot more! 💕 By walking in the spirit, you’ll make better decisions and be more pleasing to the Lord, a beautiful aroma to His nose (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
5) Guilt
You’ve done something wrong and you know it. You feel guilty and you just can’t seem to shake that feeling.
This is a GOOD thing. 🙏
We never want to sear our conscience!
Keeping our conscience sensitive to the Lord will help us to avoid pain and suffering in the future. We can figure out what we did wrong and fix it quickly to avoid punishment or chastisement from our Heavenly Father, who loves us and wants what’s best for us.
We all mess up, that’s a given. But it’s what we do when we DO mess up that matters. Do we take it to the Lord? Are we genuinely repentant for the RIGHT reason, not just because we got “caught”.
A lot of people pray for God to NOT punish them when they’re told they’ve messed up, yet they continue on in their sin. God is not going to prevent punishment if you’re not genuinely sorry for what you’ve done. We can’t just simply get out of trouble like a free Monopoly get out of jail card. It doesn’t work that way. God is a God of justice.
How to fix it: First, if you’ve been confronted on your sin, you need to find out if what they’re saying is true. If you have prayed about it and you know they are right, then apologize to the person AND to God, because you’ve offended both.
👉 Genuine repentance includes a turning AWAY from sin. If you’ve done something you should never have done in the first place, you need to stop. Completely, 100%, stop immediately.
Sometimes, you’ll have to do several things to clean up the mess, but until you fix ALL of the problems, every single little piece of it, you CANNOT get out of punishment and you CANNOT be fully restored to Christ!!
If He’s asked you to do something and you haven’t done it and you did something else instead, you have to stop doing the sinful thing AND obey what He’s asked you to do.
You have to take care of all the little issues that are coming between you and God. Otherwise, it’s not repentance, not to God’s standard. He’s faithful to forgive, and you’d be surprised how much Christians are forgiving too, but you need to make amends with the people and with God and make things right.
There’s no other way around it. You can either obey God fully, turn from your sin, or be punished. Period. What you do, is up to you.
I’ve seen a lot of people CHOOSE punishment. It’s foolish, it’s stupid, and I do not understand it. But God doesn’t force us to repent or do what is right. He allows for forgiveness when we repent and change our ways, but He never forces us. We are not mindless robots He controls. He gives us a choice (human will).
Do you want to be fully reconciled to Him and to live in peace with the offended party or do you just not care, condoning and justifying your sin?
A genuine believer will be marked by a genuine repentance and turning AWAY from sin. 💯 If you’re not doing that REGULARLY, people have a reason to question the legitimacy of your faith!!! It’s a big deal. Sin is always a big deal and we must eradicate it from our lives as much as humanly possible. To do anything else, is not the mark of a true believer.
6) A hunger for God’s Word
The longer we are Christian, the more our appetite gets stronger for the Lord and all things concerning Him. The Bible is like honey to our soul. It’s sweet, it’s comforting, it’s loving, it’s grace, all wrapped up into one.
And the more time you spend with God, the more you’ll crave Him. 🤩 He’s so DIFFERENT than everyone else. So perfect. So loving. So gentle with us. You just always wanna be around Him.
How to fix it: If you don’t currently have a hunger for the Word of God, pray and ask God that He give you that hunger. Ask Him to show you jewels in the Bible that you never knew before. Pretty soon, you’ll get “hooked” on the Bible and you’ll want to read it all the time. 😊 It’s a special and unique relationship, one to be cultivated and cherished daily. ❤️
7) Dealing with temptation
Temptation is everywhere for everyone. One thing I can say with full confidence is that it’s tempting to have sex outside of marriage. I’ve been single for a long time and it’s not been easy. But keeping myself pure (both in thought and deed) is important to me and I always try to avoid situations that can lead to temptations.
Maybe you’re tempted with something else. You need to continually, moment by moment, mortify your flesh. RUN and FLEE temptation. Get away from it as fast as humanly possible.
Is there a girl that’s tempting you at church? Get away from her. That may mean taking some drastic steps. If your church has two services, go to the other service time. If she usually sits at one part of the church, sit at the other side of the church, on the same row as her so you can’t just see her so easily and she can’t be tempting you with her eyes. She’s out of your vision.
If you’re on stage performing music and she’s tempting you, stop performing. I know it’s drastic but the Bible calls for it. Matthew 5:30. If you don’t, you will end up sinning because you didn’t stop it when you had the chance. Believe me when I say, she knows EXACTLY what she’s doing, even if she’s super subtle about it and plays the “innocent card”, she’s not and she WILL get you to sin. It’s just a matter of time and SHE knows it.
How to fix it: Do whatever it takes to flee temptation (Joseph fled and left his coat – Genesis 39:12). When you’re tempted, pray, leave the situation, get out of there as fast as you can! Temptation will ALWAYS be enticing you and you need to learn how to deal with it WITHOUT sinning.
If you’ve already sinned, you need to run away EVEN FASTER! Get out of there and get back on track with the Lord as quickly as humanly possible. Do whatever it takes to be restored to Christ. Your entire future depends on it! I’ve seen many men destroyed because they do not flee.
There’s one man that comes to mind. There was a girl at church and she was (and is) superficial. He started liking her and chasing her. I knew as soon as he did, he was in for trouble, but I never said anything. It wasn’t my place. He ended up marrying her. He’s a believer, she turned out not to be a genuine Christian (which was clear to me from the beginning). After 6 years of marriage, she is STILL superficial and treats him like GARBAGE, never spending any time with him. He’s ended up hating her, despising her, being bitter to her and hating their marriage and wants out!
He comes to ME, asking me advice. I’ve seen the whole story play out for years, from the beginning; I know it well. I tell him, “Look, you’re stuck. She hasn’t cheated on you, she refuses to leave you, divorce would be sin.”
He’s utterly MISERABLE. 💯
He left her for a little while but can’t have sex outside of marriage so comes back to her because of that and she has him right where she wants him. She can do whatever she wants and abuse him (neglect him) and it’s ultimately HIS fault. He’s ruined his own life because he didn’t stop it when he should have. That’s on him, not anyone else.
And that situation is PRETTY COMMON!
There’s a man I see RIGHT NOW, going down that same path and I say to that man if you are there, GET THE HECK AWAY FROM HER INSTANTLY. SHE’S BAD NEWS and you WILL ruin your whole life if you don’t!!!!! This is not a time to be polite to her; she knows exactly what she’s doing. This is a time to recognize God’s will and FLEE!!!!
It is absolutely imperative that single men know exactly what to look for in a woman and to look for and desire a godly woman, not a woman enticing a man by lustful neighings or improper clothing.
