The Perennial Struggle

The Perennial Struggle

If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

“Why do I struggle so much with this?”

I paused before responding to her text, praying how best to respond to my friend’s familiar spiral of feeling not good enough.

She is immensely talented: intelligent, compassionate, and a superstar in her profession. Her perennial struggle is one of unworthiness, and she falls periodically into the trap of trying to prove her worth, to be perfect. I know this about my friend, and the moment I start to hear an undertone of unworthiness creep into our conversations, I slam the proverbial brakes and U-turn our conversation back to God’s grace and our inability to ever be deserving of what he so freely gives.

Perennial struggles—we all have one or two. We all have something we return to again and again, causing us to veer off course. The enemy of our soul knows about our struggles, and these are the weak spots he goads repeatedly, trying to get us to doubt the promises of God, trying to tempt us into sin, seeking a foothold with his lies.

The people closest to us can typically see us slipping into harmful thought cycles and behaviors before we can realize or see it for ourselves. Something as small as a simple word or nudge from someone who loves us and has our best interests in mind can remind us of God’s truth. Ecclesiastes reminds us how much we need people who pick us up—spiritually and physically—when we’re slipping into our perennial struggle. We’re not meant to walk through life on our own, never relying upon anyone else. The truth is that we are stronger when we are in a spiritual community, in friendship with other Jesus followers.

— Julie

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Ask God to reveal your perennial struggle and the perennial struggles of your closest friends. Make a plan for how you will support them when they are tempted to believe lies and resolve to reach out when you start to struggle.