ENDURING HARDSHIP
Verse To Memorise: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Matthew 5:11
Read: Matthew 5:10-12,
10 Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Bible in one year: Leviticus 6:8-7:38, 1st Corinthians 5:1-6:11
MESSAGE:-
The devil
knows the glorious tomorrow that awaits every believer in Christ when they
cross the finish line of the Christian race. This is why he fights tooth and
nail to derail us from reaching our goal. He was a part of the heavenly bliss
that will be our reward, but he lost his place due to evil thoughts (Isaiah 14:12-15). He does not want us to taste what
he lost; hence he works through wiles to bring us down (Ephesians 6:11). One of the wiles that Satan uses in making
believers in Christ abandon the Christian race is hardship. Some people have
pulled out of heaven’s marathon before getting to the finish line, due to their
inability to endure hardship. Our Lord Jesus Christ described such people in Mark 4:17
“And
have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when
affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are
offended.”
The
expectations you had when you entered the Christian faith matter a lot. The
Christian faith is not a bed of roses. The way of the cross that leads to
Heaven is not a path laden with gold and easy to take. If anyone tells you that
once you believe in Jesus, all your problems will disappear and everything will
always go well, you are being deceived. The day you signed up as a believer in
Christ, the die was cast and the battle line was drawn between you and the
kingdom of darkness. From that day, you become a sworn enemy of the forces of
darkness. They will surely attack you and try to make you feel miserable.
You are
expected to endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ (2nd Timothy 2:3). The inability to endure
difficult and trying times makes one a bad soldier of the cross. Even when God
blesses you, He still leaves room for you to be persecuted, tried and
ridiculed. Your faith in Christ may be tested through lack, hunger, unanswered
prayers, false accusations, ill health, and so on. Jesus in our Bible reading
taught that if you can take persecution, being reviled by men and false
accusation in good faith, you are blessed and on the path to Heaven. On the
other hand, if you easily get offended by these, if nothing is done to correct
your attitude, you may become derailed from the faith. Are you offended in
Christ? Towards the end of his stay on earth, John the Baptist began to doubt
if the same Person he had declared to be the Son of God was the true Messiah (Matthew 11:2-6). In His reply to John’s questions,
the Lord told him not to be offended in Him. It is a good thing to suffer
persecution for your faith in Christ. Never get to the point of being offended
in Him.
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