November 17, It’s Not About You

Today’s reading: Psalms 81-85

“With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. ‘Come,’ they say, ‘let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.’ With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you” - Psalm 83:3-5.

The Lord takes it personally when anyone persecutes His church and His people. When Saul was on the Damascus Road on his way to arrest and harass believers, the Lord Jesus appeared to Him and said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). Therefore, when you are persecuted — and you will eventually suffer for His name sake — it’s not about you, so don’t take it personally. If you are suffering for your relationship with the Lord, the persecutors hate the Jesus in you, and not only you. That is why you should be able to witness to them and pray for them, because you realize their eternal destiny is at stake. The good news is that, along with persecution, there will be tremendous blessings as well:

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

Are you praying for your persecutors? Are you thanking God for your blessings, or allowing your suffering to mar your perspective of the blessings you have in Christ?

 

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