In martial sports like boxing and karate, you soon learn that if you don’t keep your guard up it’s only a matter of time before you are clobbered.

Christianity promises a life of inner joy – if this is so why are there so many uptight, depressed Christians?
We may be able to quote the Bible from cover to cover, we may know all the promises and can converse on any biblical doctrine, but if we don’t apply that which we have learnt we are defenceless.  We are like a fighter who knows all the fancy moves but gets into the ring and freezes – all his knowledge is useless and will not save him from being hit.
The Bible tells us that the world will slug us if we do not keep our guard up (1 Peter 5:8-9).  If we don’t apply the ‘Biblical Truths’ we have learnt to our daily circumstances we will get clobbered by adversity and slapped miserable in prosperity.
We guard ourselves from stress, bitterness and depression by applying biblical promises and doctrines.  This is where many Christians fail because there is a huge difference between knowing and applying.  Many people live Christianity academically and never actually trust the things they learn in the Bible; instead they lean on their own wisdom or worldly council then wonder why life always knocks them down.
We must actively trust that God will honour His Word at the right time and in a right way (even if His time and way doesn’t seem right to us).  If we hand our problems to God but continue to stress, it may be an indication that we have little faith.
Remember, we get results not by what we know but how we apply that knowledge. When we keep our ‘spiritual’ guard up, adversities in life won’t knock us out.  Only then will we start developing the relaxed-attitude and joy promised to us in the Bible.
John 15:11 states: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”