The Christian Life Is Not Easy
By A. W. Tozer
By A. W. Tozer
As we move farther on in the Christian life, we may expect to encounter greater difficulties in the way and meet increased hostility from the enemy of our souls. Though this is seldom presented to Christians as a fact of life, it is a solid fact indeed as every experienced Christian knows, and one we shall learn how to handle or stumble over to our own undoing.
Satan hates the true Christian for several reasons. One is that God loves him, and whatever is loved by God is sure to be hated by the devil.
Another reason is that the Christian, being a child of God, bears a family resemblance to the Father and to the household of faith. Satan’s ancient jealousy has not abated nor his hatred for God diminished in the slightest. What ever reminds him of God is without other reason the object of his malignant hate.
A third reason is that a true Christian is a former slave who has escaped from the galley, and Satan cannot forgive him for this affront.
A fourth reason is that a praying Christian is a constant threat to the stability of Satan’s government. The Christian is a holy rebel loose in the world with access to the throne of God. Satan never knows from what direction the danger will come. Who knows when another Elijah will arise, or another Daniel? Or a Luther or a Booth? Who knows when an Edwards or a Finney may go in and liberate a whole town or countryside by the preaching of the Word and prayer? Such a danger is too great to tolerate, so Satan gets to the new convert as early as possible to prevent his becoming too formidable a foe. If Satan opposes the new convert, he opposes still more bitterly the Christian who is pressing on toward a higher life in Christ. The Spirit-filled life is not, as many suppose, a life of peace and quiet pleasure. It is likely to be something quite the opposite.
Viewed one way; it is a pilgrimage through a robber-infested forest; viewed another way, it is a grim warfare with the devil. Always there is struggle, and sometimes there is a pitched battle with our own nature where the lines are so confused that it is all but impossible to locate the enemy or to tell which impulse is of the Spirit and which of the flesh. If we want to escape the struggle, we have but to draw back and accept the low-keyed Christian life as the normal one. That is all Satan wants. That will ground our power, stunt our growth and render us harmless to the kingdom of darkness.
Compromise will take the pressure off. Satan will not bother a person who has quit fighting. But the cost of quitting will be a life of peaceful stagnation. We children of eternity just cannot afford such a thing.