"Christianity is not easy !" ?

I came across a blog the other day where a good Christian lady, housewife and mother was writing about temptation. While this is certainly a subject many people are struggling with, and while temptation is one of the things we are taught to pray about by Christ Himself (Mat 6:13), I was struck by one sentence in the article that made me stop and wonder.

After a general introduction into the subject, the lady said that she certainly had to struggle with things and still was, and she concluded that "Christianity is not easy", putting special emphasis on the "not" as if she had been "accused" before of having chosen a religion that was easy. She is not the first one to say so and will certainly not be the last. Search the internet for the phrase "Christianity is not easy" if you want a quick overview of the discussion.

Now, I know I said it before on this blog, but I am not afraid of repeating myself on the important matters: Christ does not only teach us to pray for delivery from evil, but He also promises that His yoke is easy and his burden light, and that we should come to Him, take up His yoke, learn from Him, and find rest for our souls (Mat 11:28-30).

I do have the impression that Christ's words here do not go very well with this good Christian lady's conclusion on the matter of temptation. I guess that, instead of dwelling on temptations or trying to work through them in our own good time and way, it would be much more in accordance with Scripture to simply obey Yahweh's commandments - in other words, take Christ's yoke and learn from Him what it means to be obedient - and if temptations arise, stick with the Law and pray for deliverance from evil, like we are taught.

After all, we are told that His yoke is easy, so how can we as bible believers turn around and claim that Christianity is not easy ? If we fear the Lord and obey His Law Word, He will see to it that our paths are smooth.

"The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway." (Pro 15:19)