Thoughts for another day

Nov. 13, 2013.

Today's verse: 2 Tim. 3:12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

When you came into the Lord after being born again and you were sincere to follow the Lord whole-heartedly, then the first thing you would have noticed would be the behavior of people around you; particularly your family, friends, colleagues and others.  Their responses and reactions to things fairly normal would have been rather shrill leaving you wondering what wrong you did.  There would have been occasions when you were severely reprimanded for small errors and didn’t even know why.  Similarly, people you considered your own became inimical to you and even cast slurs upon you. 

All this would have brought many tears in your eyes for you thought: here I’ve given my life to the Lord fully and there, all things are going wrong.  In this, perhaps you weren’t innocent either: a short temper there or a wild word here and the chain reaction was much more than you could handle.  Going to the Lord, you may have asked Him, Lord I did the same things earlier but there never was such a reaction, what wrong am I doing now?  Our Scripture today is apt for you because be sure, if you dedicate your life to God and strive to live a godly life, you’ll face persecution.

Of course, any Christian who sets out for the field to sow into the Kingdom by proclaiming the Good News will face massive persecution; it’s guaranteed. But even when we’re turning over a new leaf for the cause of Christ, we’ll not be spared.  It’s because the devil is so incensed by our action of giving over our lives to God, he spares no effort to see that we give up our desire to follow God.  He will create ripples in relationships and tarnish reputations; encourage slurs and filthy language and in every way try upset the rhythm of our lives so we get disturbed with both our opponents and God and give up our noble desires.  Be cautious and understand it’s only for a while he can do it before God sends Him packing.  Trudge on and be adamant in your faith in God; He will bring you out of it.