Good Morning. God is so good to us.
Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Continued…
Yesterday morning I received a wonderful reply to Monday’s devotional. Dr. Sharon Landers, our EVP of Academic Affairs forwarded me the verses of Matthew 5:10-12. This was the text for Sunday’s message at her church. When I read them, my first thought was how glorious they are. My second thought was that I must have really been tired to not think of such rich words from our Lord. Sharon made the observation that the rejoice command is the one we sometimes skip over. Here are the verses:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
This really requires a paradigm shift for most of us. We typically do not view persecution to be a blessing nor do we want to bless the ones doing the persecution. When it comes to the rejoicing part we probably don’t ‘skip over’ it because it never occurs to us. We are too busy reacting and the thought to view it all positively is lost somewhere. But we need to recognize that persecution is a blessing when it is done because of righteousness. As verse 12 states, we are to rejoice and be glad – not become discouraged or angered.
These verses in Matthew indicate that the persecution we receive should be because of righteousness. They also make it clear that we will be persecuted because of our faith in Jesus. We want our lives to be filled with His righteousness – meaning that our daily lives are increasingly filled with Godly attributes.
With each passing day we become more like Jesus. The very fact that we live for Him is going to produce results. Some will be drawn to God and will become His. Others will react negatively and will take it out on us. Let us prepare ourselves that when persecution occurs, we will respond as God wants. Let us remember that it is all about Him – not about us.
Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God 