Hard to be a Young Man

It definitely is a hard thing to be a young woman in this day and age, but in some ways it is even harder to be a young man.

Unless a young man decides to swim with the current, it is becoming unthinkable to make it through life swimming against the tide and standing in faith.

The other day I received a message from a frustrated young person:-

“Why don’t make your messages current, like a kind that flows with the culture of our day? It frustrates me to listen to your messages.”

Such a real frustration, isn’t it? And to tell you the truth, I don’t judge the person.

Unless one is helped by the Holy Spirit to see the Truth as it is, it sounds counter-intuitive.

Saying to a young man, “Train your eyes to bounce back to yourself off of a pretty girl,” is totally counter-intuitive.

How can a young man do that? Nature definitely does not tell him to. His body testifies to the fact that he cannot stop staring and lusting after a pretty girl. And this dark world encourages this young man to do nothing but lust after a girl.

Bounce back??? Are you serious???? That is gibberish!

If young men could do that perfectly, all porn and even entertainment industries would totally be bankrupt and disappear from the face of the earth.

The Bible says:-

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28 NASB

And it says:-

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 NIV

For the mind of this world, these verses sound like complete gibberish.

You see, that is why we make sure that we first tell people to know Christ and His words intimately, because only from the LIFE that flows from Jesus Christ and His word can a person get strength, desire, and power to be the person the word of God calls him/her to be.

And here is the truth:- Whatever the word of God calls a person to be is what that person deeply wants and desires to be!

Why?

Because we all are originally created with the potential to be totally perfect!

But because of the fall (Genesis 3), we all are corrupt (Romans 3:23) and lost all our potential to be perfect.

What we ALL are able to do now is to be perfectly and totally IMPERFECT, ALL THE TIME!

But the desire for this potential is still there with us, ingrained on our DNA, the desire to be what God wants us to be.

When I meet a person who keeps on cheating on his wife, a young man who is hooked onto porn, a woman who finds herself in bed with many men, they always say this to me in tears:-

“But I hate what I do. I don’t want to be this kind of person.”

Paul writes:-

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Romans 7:15

What an eloquent way of putting this struggle!

Not only did he describe the problem wonderfully, Paul also gave the solution right there:-

“Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:24-25a

Yes, Jesus is the Answer!

Still this is the most boring answer for the person who has been battling against sin for years!

But however boring the answer may sound, the truth is, Jesus is the only Answer for our imperfection. He is the only Answer for this world. He is the only Healer of our sickness, which is SIN!

None other!

So, Jesus said,

“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven” John 6:51a

And He said,

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4

This “Every Word” is Jesus Christ Himself, the Bread that comes from heaven.

John writes:-

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. ” John 1:1, 14

Wow! Full of grace and truth!

Unless a person feeds on this Bread on a regular basis, how can he/she has the life that can only be found in Christ?

That is why people say, “The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible.” How true that is! ///