Part 3. Under persecution, humility is essential to find favor with God, for those who are proud draw attention to themselves and not to God, resulting in resistance toward you. But let's be honest about how we feel. Testimonies reveal there is fear and anxiety at first from not knowing what to expect, but over time this new life style of suffering becomes more normal as one learns from God how to live under it. Let us not move forward too quickly, but get back to our verse for this lesson.
First, we are to clothe ourselves with humility and then we are to cast all our anxieties on Jesus Christ because he will care for us. This statement raises two questions: 1) How do we cast our anxieties on him, and 2) How do we know he will care for us? We need to study and have faith to continue. To answer the first question we need to look at Philippians 4:6-7: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (NASB). We will need this peace to guard our hearts and minds under the conditions we will experience. We will need to experience with these verses to make them part of our living experience, for without a growing practical working faith of this promise, we will come up short when facing persecution. To answer the second question, we need to remind ourselves that before the foundation of the world, our Father chose us and recorded our names in the Book of Life. He then adopted us into the family of God, causing us to be born again, and given as a gift to Jesus to receive eternal life. There is no way such a loving Father and Son would not care for us and see us through to the very end to stand in their eternal presence. Jesus was anxious as he faced the cross and we will be anxious, but as with Jesus, let us face this trial with joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment