Let us take a moment to clear some things up. Life is a struggle whether one is a Christian or not. The rain from heaven that causes crops to grow and therefore food for us, comes on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). The first twelve verses of Psalm 73 are about the prosperity of the wicked. What about the life style of a Barabbas? Did not such life style have a draw back to it? The point is that in life some have it good while others do not. It happens to all men whether they are righteous or unrighteous.
What makes Christianity so appealing is the promise of God to be with us no matter how hard life gets (Heb. 13:5). We have a High Priest who understands what we go through in life (Heb. 4:15). We have a God so close as to catch “…our tears in His bottle” (Psa. 56:8). We have a God who promises us that His yoke is easy as compared to what the world has to offer (Matt. 11:28-30). Our task is not to paint some rosy picture of the greatness of life. Instead we need to teach men that what God offers is an “abundance of life “ (John 10:10). It is an abundance that is enjoyed because of what we learn by what we go through in life. The great lesson to be learned is that God can be trusted because He does not lie to us.
Following Christ is not the removal of struggle nor difficulties rather it is acknowledging the struggling and claiming for help for them. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 24-28 is a listing of all that Paul endured by following Christ. At the end of his journey he could say that he had finished the course and kept the faith ( 2 Tim. 4:7) What else did he say? He had fought the fight. If one reads the passage in 2 Cor. 11 and then couples that with what Paul writes to Timothy, the message is life is a struggle. Only the Christian has an answer to and a help for dealing with the struggles of life. Be a Christian, nothing else matters.