Is Christianity a crutch? Do you have to be a wimp to be a Christian?

The media likes to present Christians as people who lack confidence and who are wishy-washy. How many times has the Christian in a movie been the drunk, the hypocrite or the weak individual?

However, in this modern age it is very easy to stand for nothing and to be tolerant of every crude trend, but it takes guts to stand out from everyone else.

It takes a whole lot of courage to stand out in a crowd. It takes a resolute will to stand up for righteousness in a world tolerant of sin. It takes a deep inner certainty to speak with confidence about eternity, judgement, holiness and divine intervention in human events.

Any fool can get drunk, but one needs forcefulness to declare that peace and joy is found in an inner strength found in God and not from losing your senses at a party. Any fool can walk down the road swearing at strangers, but it takes a deep heart to start thinking of others before yourself.

It’s not hard at all to mock Christian values, but it takes fortitude to make a stand in front of those who don’t share your moral compass. You don’t need any spiritual strength to see a fortune teller hoping for good news, but it takes discernment, judgement and wisdom to move in spiritual gifts, to pray with certainly and to engage in spiritual warfare.

You don’t need a spine to follow the crowd, but you have to be forceful to walk against that tide of opinion. Many claim to be strong, yet when we examine their way of life, we soon learn that they are being swept along by modern culture - hiding behind the norms of the age.

To be a Christian means to stand out. To defend justice you have to be seen and heard. To help the lowly, you have to have enough courage to forget yourself and see another and their need. Many in this age search for identity as they blindly follow their culture, but Christians find an inner confidence, strength of purpose and a destiny in their faith in Christ.

Someone once said, “What is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.” It’s easy to make a stand when it costs you nothing, yet in history Christians have always paid a price by standing up for righteousness against the tide of public opinion. Christians fought against the slave trade and slavery. Christians fought for better pay, decent working conditions and for good living standards for every citizen. Christians fought for religious freedom and political freedom. Christians started our schools, hospitals and they championed human rights. These Christians paid a heavy price for their commitment to Christ and we should learn from them.

To discover more about how Christianity changed our world for the better, take a look at the book ‘How Christianity Made the Modern World.’ Go