Wednesday 13 Jun 2018

June 13: Matthew 10:26-31

Key Verse: Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Devotion:
There are always going to be people who will call us names, mock us, revile us, persecute us… Christian life suddenly doesn’t sound a good life anymore… But what we find is that we always have those people who would be against us no matter what life we lead. The sad part is when we do become Christians and lead a Christian life, many people do respect us but those who are against us often become more aggressive or more blatant. If we are going to uphold the name of Christ above those persecutions, then we are demonstrating to one and all that Christ is our Saviour, our King.

There are still places that will put Christians to death just because they are Christians, but chances are that if you are able to read this, then you are able to worship in relative safety. Any act against us is just another attempt by Satan to stop us from doing what we do best – worshipping God and giving Him all the glory! No matter what Satan tries to do, he is never going to be able to take us away from Christ. Jesus paid for our sins and He gave us the choice to believe in Him. By believing in Him we have accepted His most wonderful gift – eternal salvation. Because God will never go back on His word, Satan cannot take us away. He may well be able to make our life uncomfortable to see if we will ever denounce God, but because we know we are eternally saved, that will not happen.

So, when Jesus was telling the disciples not to fear anyone who could kill them, He meant it quite literally. They would face death because of what they did in amongst God’s people! But that death is nothing compared to what will face our persecutors when they face hell for their rejection of God. Nobody will be able to take our souls away from God unless we never give them back to God. By believing in God we are giving our souls back into God’s eternal protection. By rejecting God, man is accepting the fact he does not care about his own soul being permanently destroyed in hell.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like being burned?

Is your soul safely in God’s hands?