Yesterday, my sermon was from Matthew 5: 10-12. Jesus is concluding the section of the Sermon on the Mount known as the beatitudes. This particular passage deals with persecution. I don’t know if I fully understand the ways that I am persecuted in my Christian life. In fact, I don’t think that I have even spent much time thinking about being persecuted. For the most part, my life has been relatively calm and easy going. Raised in a Christian home, I always was involved in church ministry and was very active in all the church had to offer. I was involved in a music ministry called the Continental Singers and had the privilege of leading groups of young people around the world to sing praise the Lord and invite people into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. This was a tremendous experience and I would trade any of it….but in these areas of life and ministry I don’t remember feeling persecuted.
I married Leigh Ann in 1989…our family has grown in the years since to include our wonderful boys. We have been in ministry at Pea Ridge Baptist for the past 8 years and I don’t think that I have thought about ways that persecution has come. Sure there have been some difficult situations and times in our family and ministry, but I have not seen them as persecution. When Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy is said, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted“ (2 Timothy 3:12, ESV). Jesus told the disciples just before he was crucified, “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15: 20, ESV). So as I look back over my life, I am wondering if I have experienced persecution and just did not recognized it as persecution or perhaps I have not faced any at all. Either way, I am becoming keenly of whether or not there is persecution in my life.
Perhaps the greatest lesson that has come in this study and reflection on suffering and persecution is simply the truth that how I live my life really does matter. Jesus said it best: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8: 34-35, ESV). God is calling me to abandon my life to follow Him. When I do this…I will walk in the ways of God, not man…I will pursue the goals God places before me and not my own…I will seek to please God with my life and not worry about what people around me are saying. I have to rise above the temptation to “do the right things” so that people will like me and instead “do the right things in God’s eyes.” When that becomes my focus, then there will be resistance and hardship and conflict (persecution). People might wonder way I am doing certain things and acting in certain ways, but it will not matter. My focus and desire must be to please God…to be totally and complete sold out to him in every way! What a difference this will make in my life!
The Bible says, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:10-11, ESV). Since suffering and persecution are going to be part our lives, it is comforting to know that we will receive God’s strength and protection as we go. Christ himself will “restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you” in all ways for His glory and His honor. What hope and comfort these words bring to one who are will endure all kinds of suffering for the sake of the gospel!
So my objective in the days to come, live for God…completely, totally and without reserve. Give myself fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that I will receive my strength and comfort from Him and knowing I will be rewarded someday for being faithful! Praise be to God!
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