Thursday Reading: Philippians 1:27-30
Key Verse: Philippians 1:28
28 and terrified in nothing by your adversaries. For this is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.
Devotion:
When we read verses that talk about suffering for Christ we immediately think about violence against us and we even start to shy away from these things simply because we do not like violence – especially against us! But if we read deeper into God’s word we will see two sides to this suffering. The first side being that Christ loves us and wants to protect us and the second being that we can expect people to hate us in some manner because of Christ. We may even think that these seem to be opposite sides of the coin, one bringing love and peace the other bringing hatred and violence.
This verse in our bibles reminds us that we need not fear anything from this earth because God is greater than anything! Yes there are going to be times when we have to put up with ridicule from others who simply will not open their eyes to the truth but that is because they do not understand the truth. There may be times when people will plot against us; but again it is because of their lack of understanding. People do things against us through ignorance more than anything else. Yes there are going to be a select few who we can always count on to upset the apple cart and work against God, but those are the few.
We need to stand up as Christians and allow the world to see that we stand in Christ’s name and under His protection. We need to stand up and be counted for Christ. If that means that we have to put up with people who would like to mock us or deride us in any way, then so be it; we are aiming at a much better place and need to remember that these small things are exactly that – small things. God offers us His protection. To accept that protection we need to stand up and be counted as one of His!
Points to Ponder:
What do you fear in life?
Do you know what Christ has in store for you?
