Living as a christian is hard, living in Christ is easier

Probably at no point does the Christian mind clash more violently with the
secular mind than in its insistence on humility and its implacable hostility to
pride.
--From John Stott "Issues Facing Christians Today" (London:
Collins/Marshall Pickering, 1990), p. 37.

When we veiw Christianity as nothing more than sin management, we delude
ourselves. Firstly because the onus is then on us to live the perfect Christian
life and secondly to the onus is on us to overcome sin. Both these are
impossibilities. Only Christ can do this. We struggle so hard to overcome sin
when we try to do it in our own strength, but when we rest in His power and
ability, and allow his loveing hands to wash our feet, so that we are clean,
then we are just that, clean.

We forget that it was for freedom that we are set free. Its like the convict who is exonerated and yet is so institutionalised that he cannot adjust to life outside prison. It takes adjustment, time, and struggle.

The glorious thing is that we know that when Christ truly returns in,
through and to his Church, the very real possibility for transformation is birthed. The old has gone, the new has come.

I praise God for honest preachers, who don't say that your life when you
become a christian becomes a bed of Roses, your lambourgini arrives at the door
and all your problems dissappear.
Quite the contrary, if we are to be Godly in this life, we will face
challenges, we will face opposition. But praise God, he sustains us, strengthens
and encourages us, and promises us we will not be tempted beyond our
endurance.