THE BATTLE WITHIN

“Every person will have to bear… his own… load of oppressive faults.” (Galatians 6:5 – Amplified)

One of the toughest battles you will continually face in life is with yourself:

• Your self-incrimination from an overactive conscience.

• Your fear of rejection… failure… the future.

• Your inner spiritual turmoil over reappearing sin.

Someone has jokingly said, “If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I always in the pits?” Well,

at times, life is the pits!… For ALL of us:

• Paul spoke of being perplexed… wretched… (despairing) even of life.”i

• Jonah and Elijah harbored a death wish; Moses approached burnout. (Jonah 4:8; I

Kings 19:4; Exodus 18:13-20)

• Luther, Spurgeon, and Billy Graham struggled often with depression.

So… What is the answer to bearing my “own load of oppressive faults”? Escape to the Fiji

Islands or South America? Hardly, since you still have to face yourself.

Perhaps the simplest answer is JESUS: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will

give you rest… for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.” (Matthew

11:28, 29)

He is the solution to every heartache, every dilemma, every unsolvable problem, every disap-

pointment… the deepest loneliness.

Have you ever crawled up on His lap… buried your head in His shoulder and wept? Poured

out your soul to Him?

It is doubtful that all the psychology and self-help books in the world can give you the peace

and release that true intimacy with the Lord Jesus affords.

It is to us He says, “How often I wanted to gather (you) together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under

her wings, and you were unwilling… ” And when our inclination is to turn to everyone but Him

He says, “your house is being left to you desolate.”