Prepare for Persecution

   "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted.

 
Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, For they shall be filled with mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called Sons of God

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Matthew 5:3-12

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven-vs 10

    If we were given a list of all the trials and tribulations we would walk through before accepting the gift of Salvation, I don't know how many of us would still choose the path of righteousness. But the reality is, Jesus himself promised us that we would be hated by the world, persecuted and oppressed for our faith, but then in the end, we would receive the crown of life. When we take our eyes off of the things happening to us in the moment and keep our focus on the people watching, we will see that, sometimes, they won't care about our religion if it is perfect and nothing messes with it. They want to see that, as Christians, the storms of life only strengthen us, rather than break us apart. If upon salvation, nothing ever went wrong in our life again, overtime, we would get the sense that we need God to intervene less and less, and begin building up the pride of ourselves that we can do this on our own. Without troubles, we tend to think of ourselves as omnipotent and all powerful. But Jesus is saying almost the opposite. It is better to be persecuted for your faith, for the sake of righteousness, than to go through life no worried about anything going wrong. Even Paul, the writer of the majority of the New Testament, had something in his life that God would not remove, a thorn in his flesh. A constant reminder that God is taking care of things we might not even see, and the trials we face are rarely not even about us in the first place, but the people who are waiting for us to fail. When the trial is over, and we emerge stronger than before, that will be a better testament to the God we serve than a perfect life lived without struggle. 

    Nobody wants to sign up for persecution, but when you submit your life fully to God, persecution is going to come. I would rather walk through the fire with God guiding me through, then live a life of ease without any chance for growth and change. If I am comfortable with the people around me going to hell because I was unwilling to give up my comforts, I am no better than they are, and I am dragging God behind me rather than letting him be the guide of my life. 

Adam Semple- A Young Man on a Journey through the Sermon on the Mount.