It is hard being a Christian. Almost every influence out there works against your faith, working to make you downplay it, or disregard it entirely. Even your own flesh.
St. Paul explains in Romans 6. "Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Dead to sin? But sin remains. No it doesn't condemn me. No I am no longer guilty of it because of Jesus, but it is there, working to destroy my faith in this Jesus. I have fleshly desires. My eyes are distracted by worldly things.
And this is hard. In fact, it is war.
You know, Christ has shed His own blood for you. You know His blood takes care of all your sin, but your flesh remains, and until the day of the resurrection it will war against your faith. War.
It is a dying and rising everyday. The Christian life is not about becoming better. It is about dying. Death and resurrection. Rising new in Christ. Rising new in faith. Yes, it is going to be hard, because it means that you are going to have to have your own self die over and over again. But this is exactly the life the Christian is in - all on account of Christ. All on account of baptism.
Paul writes, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?"
Your life begins in death. The death of Jesus. And it continues there in the waters of baptism as you daily die to sin and rise to new life. So today, don't think of how you can be a better Christian. Look to see where God is calling you to die, that He may raise you up.
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