“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Have you ever had a bad day? A day when not only things go wrong, but as they go wrong people are yelling at you, calling you names, and if they are not yelling at you and calling you names, you know they WANT yelling at you and calling you names. I’ve had days like that before myself. God knows we have days like this too, and Jesus had a few of them Himself. No matter what you do, even if it is the proper thing to do and righteous before the Lord, someone’s angry. Well, rejoice and be glad!
Becoming a Christian is an awesome thing. With it comes forgiveness for all your sins, trespasses and wrings that you have committed, and a knowledge of peace in your salvation is part of the fruit of the joy of knowing you and the Lord are back on track. With this understanding of salvation comes another gift. The Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, showing us the Light of Jesus and leading our way.
But the leader of this world is not Jesus. It is His enemy the evil one, the devil, Satan himself. Because of him and sin entering into this world through him when mankind fell in the garden, our flesh is sinful and fights against our Spirit. We, as people, in our human nature are at enmity with God. Satan tells us we can do whatever we want, our Spirit reminds us that we have a responsibility to our Christianity, and a responsibility to live a life worthy of Jesus because of the price He paid to redeem our spirits. This battle can be a hard one. Nah, let’s just tell the truth here; that battle IS the HARDEST battle you’ll face your entire life.
The moment you are born again in Jesus, the tables are turned. You are now right with God and enemies of Satan. Satan knows he has lost the battle, but he is going to do everything within his power to make your life as miserable as possible. This, after all, is his job. And he’s good at it. Thankfully, we have Jesus, and we have the Father in heaven. Hearing our cries, and having watched His own Son live through the pain and suffering He did, God the Father can feel our pain like no one else. Because of this He has filled scripture with verses of encouragement like the one we read today.
If ever you feel like you are in a predicament alone, and without any comfort, know that you have the Father in heaven. Reach out to Him in prayer, and through His word. When we feel that low, God reaches out to us with His word and tells us, “You are my little children”, “You are children of God!” Allow Him to comfort you in your suffering, and know that in spite of the fact that He allows you to suffer in this world right now, seek to grow in your suffering and start by praising Him. Follow that with the realization that you are saved, and that your afflictions on this earth are simply dust in the wind in the grand scheme of things. You may be suffering real pain, but it can’t do you any eternal harm! You are covered, you are forgiven, you are saved, and Jesus awaits you with your reward in heaven that will make all this seem so trivial.
In the mean time, praise God for what He has done in all our lives. Rejoice and be glad. We are being richly blessed and rewarded.
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