Remember This When You’re Opposed
By Rick Warren
“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.” Matthew 5:10-11 (NLT)
When you feel pressured by the world because you love Jesus and other people don’t, you want to remember three things:
Opposition can make you more like Jesus.
Jesus said in John 15:18-19, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world” (NLT).
If you’re going to grow up and be like Jesus, then you’re going to have to go through the things he went through, including loneliness, discouragement, stress, and temptation. What makes you think God would spare you when he didn’t spare his own Son from those things?
Opposition will deepen your faith.
Your faith is like a muscle. A muscle doesn’t grow by sitting in a chair and eating popcorn. A muscle grows by being stretched, strained, and tested. You’re never going to grow a muscle if no weight is ever pulling in the opposite direction.
If you don’t have opposition in your life, then your faith is not growing. The strongest believers in the world right now are those who are having their faith tested the most. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:7, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold” (NLT).
Opposition will give you eternal rewards.
Matthew 5:10-11 says, “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers” (NLT).
God’s going to bless anybody who’s persecuted because they live for him. Notice that you don’t get rewarded for being rude or obnoxious. If you live a self-righteous life when you get persecuted, you’re not a martyr; you’re just a jerk.
You get rewarded for being like Jesus. When you share what you believe, do it with gentleness and respect, just like Jesus, and you will be rewarded for it one day in heaven.
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