“The Christian Two-Step: Why Do Christians Keep Struggling?” May 12
Have you ever felt like your Christian life consists of one step forward and two steps back?
Perhaps you’ve experienced seasons where real spiritual growth seemed to be happening. You were responding well to temptation, growing in your prayer life, spending more time in God’s Word, or seeing victory over old habits. Then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, you fail again—and fail badly.
In those moments, discouragement can come rushing in. We begin to wonder if we’ll ever truly change. We question whether we’re making any real progress at all.
David experienced those same kinds of struggles.
In today’s reading, after repeatedly trusting God and refusing opportunities to take matters into his own hands, David suddenly gives way to fear and unbelief. Instead of remembering God’s faithfulness, he begins imagining the worst and runs to enemy territory for protection. It was a foolish solution born from fearful thinking.
How often do we do the same?
Even after spiritual victories, we can quickly fall back into fear, compromise, avoidance, temptation, discouragement, or self-reliance. We know God’s way is right, but in moments of weakness our feelings often overpower what we know to be true.
Yet David’s story reminds us of something deeply encouraging: failure is not the end of the story for God’s children.
God’s grace is still sufficient. His mercies are still new every morning. And when we stumble, we do not need to run from God in despair—we run back to the cross where forgiveness, grace, and help are always available.
Spiritual growth is often slower and messier than we want it to be. But God remains faithful even while He is patiently teaching us to walk by faith one step at a time.
