The 10 Greatest Struggles of Your Life
05/02/25 • 3 min
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In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Hebrews 12:4
Let’s review the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 and name our greatest struggles.
10. Your struggle with contentment: You shall not covet (20:17). Something within us wants more.
9. Your struggle with truth: You shall not bear false witness (20:16). Sometimes it isn’t easy to handle the truth.
8. Your struggle for integrity: You shall not steal (20:15). What can you be trusted with?
7. Your struggle with purity: You shall not commit adultery (20:14). Does anyone find this one easy? Purity is a struggle.
6. Your struggle for peace: You shall not murder (20:13). How do you bring peace in a world filled with trouble?
5. Your struggle with authority: Honour your father and your mother (20:12). Who hasn’t struggled with some authority figure?
4. Your struggle with time: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (20:8). It’s a struggle to master time and establish order.
3. Your struggle with religion: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain (20:7). The world is full of people claiming God’s name for their own cause.
2. Your struggle to worship: You shall not make for yourself a carved image (20:4). Our impulse is to bring God down to our level.
1. Your struggle with God: You shall have no other gods before me (20:3). It isn’t easy to let God be God.
Rate your experience with each of the commands from 1 (no struggle) to 10 (great struggle)
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Hebrews 12:4
Let’s review the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20 and name our greatest struggles.
10. Your struggle with contentment: You shall not covet (20:17). Something within us wants more.
9. Your struggle with truth: You shall not bear false witness (20:16). Sometimes it isn’t easy to handle the truth.
8. Your struggle for integrity: You shall not steal (20:15). What can you be trusted with?
7. Your struggle with purity: You shall not commit adultery (20:14). Does anyone find this one easy? Purity is a struggle.
6. Your struggle for peace: You shall not murder (20:13). How do you bring peace in a world filled with trouble?
5. Your struggle with authority: Honour your father and your mother (20:12). Who hasn’t struggled with some authority figure?
4. Your struggle with time: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (20:8). It’s a struggle to master time and establish order.
3. Your struggle with religion: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain (20:7). The world is full of people claiming God’s name for their own cause.
2. Your struggle to worship: You shall not make for yourself a carved image (20:4). Our impulse is to bring God down to our level.
1. Your struggle with God: You shall have no other gods before me (20:3). It isn’t easy to let God be God.
Rate your experience with each of the commands from 1 (no struggle) to 10 (great struggle)
Previous Episode
Life Is a Struggle
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved.
Psalm 121:2-3
Life is a struggle. It is also an adventure. Like climbing a rock face, it is a dangerous business. But it is magnificently worth it. There will be moments of triumph as you conquer some dangerous part of the climb. But there’s always another challenge ahead.
The entire Christian life is spent on the rock face, and one day you’ll stand at the summit, but not until you’re with Jesus.
Some of us have been Christians for years. We’ve made some progress, but we’re still climbing. The most dangerous place for any climber is when you think it’s getting easier. It’s possible to climb the most difficult face and then get careless and slip.
If you’re a new Christian, you might think that someone you look up to (a Christian for many years) bounces out of bed every morning and spends hours in prayer, knows exactly what to do in every situation, and never struggles with unworthy thoughts. In short, he or she has it a lot easier than you! But actually, the struggle of the Christian life never gets any easier.
The Christian life is a struggle from the moment of your new birth to the moment of your entrance into the presence of Jesus. If you are a climber, it helps to have experience. But experience never takes the struggle out of the climb.
As we look at the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) together, we’re going to see that these are the ten greatest struggles of our lives. This shouldn’t be surprising. Nobody knows you better than God does. He made you and He knows everything about you, including your struggles.
Did you know that God is aware of your greatest struggles?
Next Episode
The Law Is Like a Mentor
The law was our guardian until Christ came.
Galatians 3:24
The law is like a tutor, a coach, or a mentor. The law, properly understood, will walk you to Jesus Christ. It’s just like a good mentor who shows you where you need to go and then is willing to walk with you so that you get there.
This is precisely what the law, applied by the Spirit, will do in the life of a person. The law will show you where you need to go (the kind of life that God calls you to live), and then it will walk you to Christ.
If you start trying to live out the Ten Commandments, it won’t be long before you’re saying, “I desperately need some help.” If you start examining yourself and looking at yourself honestly in the light of these commandments, it won’t be long before you come to the conclusion that you’re a long way from the life that God has called you to lead.
And this isn’t true only for newer believers. Even if you’ve been a Christian for 10, 20, or 50 years, the commandments will still keep doing this for you. The longer you walk with Christ, the more you will come to see your own sinfulness, and the more eagerly you will cling to Christ. Discovering the commandments will increase your appreciation of Jesus.
When was the last time you experienced the commandments mentoring you like this in your own life? What happened?
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