“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:10)
“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38)
“…He prayed saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done’…and being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood…” (Luke 22:42, 44)
Let us be sure that persecution and suffering, though inevitable for the believer, is not something to be craved. There is a great difference between experiencing God’s blessing during suffering and enjoying the suffering. The first is a healthy perspective which focuses on our God who gives us strength and the later focuses on self with an unhealthy mindset which leads to destruction. We are not “victims” at the mercy of a sadistic god who gets joy from watching us suffer. Neither are we to seek out persecution or ridicule deliberately in order to gain rewards from a bloodthirsty God. There is a difference in suffering for the sake of righteousness and suffering to gain righteousness.
Jesus willingly went to the cross and endured the suffering that was there in obedience to the Father. “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:8). His words in the garden revealed a sorrow and agony over the events that were going to take place. Jesus suffered for our sake. His pain was supposed to be ours. It was an act of selfless love…a sacrifice. It was not some self-serving act of mutilation that resulted in a dramatic suicide. This was an act of love and obedience that endured the pain and, therefore, found blessing in being persecuted for righteousness’ sake…in spite of the suffering.
When we desire to live a godly life, the world will react against that with persecution…this is a blessing. But it is not a blessing when a believer seeks out suffering or persecution so that they may gain more favor in the eyes of God. This is a harmful deception which harms the believer and distorts the testimony of our loving heavenly Father.
Our challenge is to bring a consistent testimony of a loving, merciful God to a dying world in all circumstances. This will not be easy and we will, at times, suffer for it. But, although the persecution may be agonizing and painful, we will find blessing if we remain faithful to the God who has done the same for us.
Today, thank Jesus for going to the cross for you and enduring the pain that you might have the life you were intended to experience…that you might know that He loves you…and that you might trust Him enough to follow Him.