The Bible says that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12) Some look at world events and predict that persecution will intensify in the near future. That may or may not be true. But it does raise an important question:
How do we prepare for persecution?
To answer that question, let me ask you a few questions:
- Have you ever been lied about?
- Have you ever been misunderstood?
- Have you ever experienced grief and loss?
- Have you ever been trapped in an unpleasant situation?
- Have you ever suffered pain, injury or disease?
- Have you ever seen someone you love suffer?
- Have you ever experienced financial loss?
- Have you ever been around an unpleasant person?
I’m guessing you’ve answered “yes” to some or maybe all of those questions.
So let me ask a follow up question: What did you discover about God in these situations?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve discovered that God has always been really nice to me in times of suffering and pain. As His child, it’s almost an automatic reflex to go to Him when I’m hurting.
Sometimes troubles trigger in me lies that I believe about God or about myself. Lies such as: You (God) don’t care about me. You’ve forgotten about me. I’m not worth protecting. I’m just some kind of cosmic experiment. Or whatever.
I’ve learned that it doesn’t help to hide these lies from God. Instead, I go to Him honestly with what I’m feeling, and ask for His perspective on these things. Always He brings back the comforting, freeing truth that He does care about me, that I am worth protecting, and so on. The end result is this: I’m much more at peace, and much less inclined to sin after the trial than I was before.
Maybe that’s why the Bible says that he who has suffered in his body is finished with sin. (1 Peter 4:1)
People say that God will never give you something you can’t handle. That’s pure baloney! Most likely we will all experience things in life that are too big for us to handle. But none of these things are too big for God to handle.
Persecution is not something that only happens to super Christians. It happens to ordinary people who feel hurt and pain just like we do. But these ordinary people are serving a super God.
I love the story that Richard Wurmbrand (who was tortured and imprisoned for his faith) tells: There was a young man who was wayward, and, as a result, was excommunicated by his church. When the communists took over his village, all the members of the church were taken to the top of a hill to be shot and killed. Before the executions took place, however, the young man ran up the hill shouting, “Wait! Wait!” When he arrived at the top, he explained, “I too am a Christian. I’m not a very good one, but I am a Christian. Shoot me too.”
The Bible says that we get grace to help in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) As far as I know, I don’t currently have cancer. So right now I don’t have grace for a journey through cancer. I don’t expect to get cancer, but if I do, God will be there. He won’t desert me. He will give me grace for that journey. The same is true of persecution. God’s grace doesn’t leave just because we’re persecuted. On the contrary, the Bible says that God is near to the brokenhearted. (Psalm 34:18)
Hopefully, you’ve lived long enough to understand that your life here is short. With or without persecution, you will leave this earthly life soon, because all lives here are short. The Bible tells us to number our days so that we may present a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)
This is probably what motivated Jim Elliot, the famous missionary martyr, to write in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
I have not experienced intense persecution. So I don’t have the experience that some other people do have. But I have experienced God, and I have experienced trouble. I know that God is always faithful in times of trouble. He will not desert you. He will be there for you.
The best way to prepare for persecution is not to worry about it, but rather to keep seeking God whether we are in times of trouble or not. It is His grace—not our own—that will carry us through.
Remember, you are designed to make a difference!
Dwight
PS. Do you get my daily email?
Photo credit: August Brill, Flickr, Creative Commons License
