Why Is Christianity So Hard?

By Michael F. Annanie

Christianity is hard. Having faith today is difficult at best. Our faith will be tested by God, Satan, society, our loved ones and ourselves. Why is the gate narrow? Why do we need to share in the sufferings of Christ? Why is evil in the world? Why did you give us free will to choose? Why is the message of the Gospel foolishness to most people? Doesn’t God want all to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Why is it so hard for us to believe you? Frustrated with the struggles to maintain his faith, the author works through some of the hard questions that Christians will be asked and may have asked themselves.

God works through the least likely to accomplish His purpose and will. Written by a soldier for Christ, this book organizes biblical truths to enable the reader to formulate their own beliefs based on the word of God. After years of seeking God through studying, attending and leading classes, the author presents what the Bible says about key issues in the believers walk of faith.

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith” (1 John 5:4 NKJV).

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781400330980

Michael F. Annanie

The author’s testimony is about a journey to discover Faith, to love God, to know God and His Son Jesus.  How do you really love God?  How do you really “know” that Jesus is alive and real?  It takes faith. Over the 41 years since accepting Christ, the author has struggle/ wrestled with God, but always felt the presence of the Lord tugging him back home.  There was a time when he figured that he could still have a relationship with God and not attend church.  There were other times when he was on fire for the Lord.  And then other times he would fall away again only to be called back by the Lord yet again.  Through it all the author questioned and tried everything only to come back to the Lord every time.   Thank you, Jesus, for loving me that much. The author was raised in dysfunctional family that moved a lot.  He went to 12 schools through high school including 3 kindergartens and 4 high schools.  His family life deteriorated to the point that when he was 13 no one cared if he came home.  His stepmom took him to church where he accepted the Lord as his Savior on a teen trip to present a play at different Idaho churches.  Those were exciting times, living out this new life in the Lord. During all these years, the author gained a love for the Bible.  It is God’s tech manual. As a retired Army Warrant Officer, technical manuals were an important part of the job.  We were required to know them completely.  He has taken this approach to the Bible. The second aspect of being in the military is that he attended many churches.  Moving every 2 ½ years gave him a perspective on churches that few others have gained.  He received and witnessed many different methods and styles of teaching the Bible and applied these two experiences to the writing of this book. Jesus is the author’s King, Lord, Savior and Redeemer.  He is his Love.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

God is Able.

Do You Believe It?

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

(Heb 11:6 NKJV)

Christianity is hard because it takes faith. Many people want to know God is real before they will believe. They want to base their faith on knowledge. Faith doesn’t work that way. It is backwards to how our culture thinks and processes information. We must believe first and then we will know. We must " believe that He is ." (Heb 11:6 NKJV) This is one of the reasons that faith is so hard for many people.

For that reason, there will be a lot of smart people in hell. They thought they knew better. They were afraid or didn’t want to believe. The Gospel defies all common sense. It makes no sense. It is foolishness to those that are perishing, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18 NKJV) They want to know and then they will believe. The message of the cross is hard to believe for those who have hardened their hearts, for those who want to know first.

Seeking God without seeing Him or knowing He exists is how we find Him. Through wisdom, the world tries to know God. The finished work of Jesus on the cross is foolishness to those of worldly wisdom. The proud and wise of this world are unwilling to surrender their wisdom and submit to God. The foolish thing is that they are holding onto something that is perishable. Faith is believing in something that is eternal.

Humans have tried since Christ lived on earth to prove He either isn’t real or He didn’t really live, or He isn’t really God. All the efforts of humans to know has only proven that Jesus is real. There are many examples of people trying to know. There are archeological digs, historical analysis, and attempts to prove inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible. And yet Jesus and the Bible lives. And people still believe.

We search and read the Bible looking for answers that will help us know so then we can believe. We are looking to know for sure. We are looking for some evidence that will convince us, and then we will believe. If we begin with believing and step out on that faith, then we will begin to know. When we read the Bible with faith, the Word will penetrate our heart and change us. Head knowledge will only take us so far in our relationship with Jesus. It is a matter of the heart. It takes faith to know God. There is a difference between knowing and believing. We must believe that He is; then we will know.

Paul warns Timothy of those who are "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim 3:7 NKJV) And people struggle with faith Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." (Rom 9:32 NKJV) The stumbling stone is Jesus.

Christianity is hard because head knowledge will cause us to have weakened faith from time to time. God gives us the ways to know Him. He gives us the Spirit to know Him and believe in Him. The onus is on us to answer His call. To accept His free gift of salvation. The Spirit will work on our hearts and minds. God put the knowledge in our hearts to know Him, so we are without excuse. "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." (Rom 1:20–21 NKJV)

The Bible illustrates the difference between knowing and believing in the book of Luke. (Luke 8:49–56 NKJV) This is the story of Jesus healing Jairus’s daughter. Jesus has compassion on the ruler and goes to revive his daughter. Jesus states to "only believe in verse 50, Do not be afraid; only believe and she will be made well. As Jesus enters the house and sees the people crying, He says, Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping. (Luke 8:52 NKJV) But the people knew better and didn’t believe Him. They ridiculed Jesus in verse 53, And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead. So, even after Jesus stated to only believe, people thought they knew better. It would have been difficult to believe that Jesus would be able to bring her back from death. How many times in life do we know" that something is a done deal or the outcome is for certain? Our knowledge limits our ability to believe the impossible. With Jesus, all things are possible. Maybe we need to only believe. This section of the Bible is a real challenge to believe regardless of what the circumstances or situation is telling us. God is bigger than our circumstances. Do we believe it?

We can only hope that after Jesus healed Jairus’s daughter, the people believed. That they believed Jesus after witnessing His works. They witnessed a miracle and Jesus’ healing powers. In this verse, Jesus is talking to the people during His ministry about believing so that they may know, If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. (John 10:37–38 NKJV)

They had the unique privilege of seeing the works of Jesus and still struggled to believe that Jesus is God. They thought they knew better. This can happen to us today. We think we know better. We can still see the works of Jesus today. Answered prayer is an example of God working in our life. If we realize that it is God working in our lives and see the answered prayers, then we will know. God is able, do we believe it?

Some won’t ever come to faith even if someone is raised from the dead. As the rich man in hell pleads, "And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’" (Luke 16:30–31 NKJV) Jesus rose from the dead to defeat sin and death. Who will believe it?

Christianity is hard because faith is either growing or fading away. Faith must be fed and nurtured or it will fade away to nothing. If we don’t use our faith, then it will dissipate and our faith will fall away. Keeping our faith strong requires a daily choice to follow Christ.

Faith grows more faith. Exercising our faith strengthens our faith. Which in turn causes us to trust more. Which then gives us the confidence to step out again on faith. An effective way to strengthen our faith is to make a memory of God working in our life.

The Bible provides an example of making a memory in the book of Joshua. God instructed Joshua to make a memorial of His faithfulness. When the nation of Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land, God parted the Jordan for them. They crossed on dry land. God instructed Joshua to have twelve men grab twelve big stones from the river bottom and take them to the other side. There they set up a memorial to remind the children of Israel.

And when the children would ask, "What do these stones mean to you? Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever." (Joshua 4:6–7 NKJV)

We can apply this to our life. We can and should make memories of when we know that God had worked in our life or provided answer to a prayer. There was no other explanation of how the problem was solved. That way, when our faith is weakened, and we are being tossed to and fro (James 1:6 NKJV), we can remember back to when God was faithful and use it to strengthen our faith. He will be faithful again. Do we believe it?

Another benefit of making memorial stones is that it will be an example to others. Later in Joshua, the Bible explains that "all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever." (Joshua 4:24 NKJV) We may not be aware of the impact our faith has on other people around us.

Make a pile of stones. Make memories of the faithfulness of God. Hold onto those memories; cherish them, use them to strengthen our faith. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (1 Cor 1:9 NKJV)

Christianity is hard because it is a matter of the heart. Faith (and knowing) is a matter of the heart. A heart for God: "Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart." (Jer 24:7 NKJV)

The condition of the heart is important. A softened heart will receive the Word of God. A hardened heart keeps people from believing and eventually knowing. A hardened heart refuses to let the Word of God sink into the heart. Earthly circumstances harden the heart and impact the ability to believe. Possessions, people, things, and worry can harden a person’s heart. We think we know better. There were times when we thought we knew better. It was unthinkable that God would care about us or our situation. We have trouble believing because we thought we knew for sure what was going to happen. Instead of believing, we thought. This is a matter of the heart and not the mind.

Only by relying on faith can one truly understand and know God. After Jesus feeds the five thousand, Mark states that the disciples have hardened hearts keeping them from believing. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened. (Mark 6:52) Jesus continues this line of thought for the disciples in the eighth chapter of Mark, But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, ‘Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?’ (Mark 8:17 NKJV) It is important to have a soft heart to be able to receive the Word of God. The writer of Hebrews cautions against hardening our heart: "While it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ And this leads to the logical conclusion—lack of faith." (Hebrews 3:15 NKJV) and the result is unbelief, "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:19 NKJV)

The Word of God reveals what is in our hearts. The writer of Hebrews states that the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb 4:12 NKJV)

There is a difference between believing and knowing. Faith is defined as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1 NKJV) This verse doesn’t say anything about knowing. To believe God without knowing makes us rely on him and is a true testament of faith. Because if we knew, then it wouldn’t be faith. We must believe.

An example of believing and still wanting to know is Abram. He starts with believing, "And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. (Gen 15:6 NKJV) We as a people have always struggled with the question Abram poses next, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?" (Gen 15:8 NKJV) Even though Abram had believed God, he still wanted to know.

Waiting and relying on God makes Christianity difficult for many people. We like to plan. We like to know the outcome prior to moving forward. With Christ, we must wait on Him. We must rely on His strength, power, and wisdom. We can’t rely on our own skills. We must live through Christ. We must move forward without knowing; only believing that Christ has the best for us.

So then, how does God answer Abram? God gives him a vision in his sleep and makes a covenant with him. He tells him in a dream, "Know certainly that your…." (Gen 15:13a NKJV) Better make a memory of that dream. Set up a pile of stones.

Abram’s son learns what it is to know God in the story of Jacob’s ladder. God sets up a ladder for Jacob. This ladder reaches to the heavens and has angels going up and down on it. And there was the Lord at the top of the ladder. He says, "I am the Lord…." (Gen 28:13 NKJV) And he gives Jacob instructions on how his life is going to proceed. What a blessing to know that God has talked to us and told us that He was going to be with us. Wow! Now, what was Jacob’s response? He stated, Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it. (Gen 28:16 NKJV) How many times the Lord is in a place and we don’t know it. We need to look for the Lord. We need to be attuned to the Holy Spirit. If we aren’t seeking God, we will never know that He is with us. When we find that God is working in our life (notice that it is when and not if), we should rejoice like Jacob does, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven! (Gen 28:17 NKJV)

An important action by Jacob is to mark the moment. Too often God makes a mark on our life and we don’t stop to make a memory. It is those memories that we can look back on and remember that the Lord is working in our life. He has worked in our life in the past and He will work in our life in the future. It helps us when our faith is weak. And then Jacob’s final response should always be the ultimate response and the one that is pleasing to the Lord, Then the LORD shall be my God. (Gen 28:21 NKJV)

How many times do we not have the faith that God will perform a work in our lives? (See the chapter Living in Anticipation for details about answered prayer.) If we only had the faith to trust God, then we would get to know God more. This process feeds on itself in