Good morning people who live for God always

Acts 5:40-42 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

The apostles had been testifying about Jesus and Who He is. The result of this is being arrested and severely beaten. This is intense persecution.

So what is their response? Did they get bitter and upset at God because He allowed this to happen to them, and after all, they were doing this for Him? Did they timidly leave and purpose to never speak out again in case this, or something worse, happened to them?

No, they rejoiced because they counted it a privilege to suffer for Jesus’ sake. And then they preached the good news all the more!

So how do we respond when we are persecuted for following Jesus?

The reality is this is not relevant for most of us who are reading this. For some it is. Maybe for those who don’t physically suffer beatings or imprisonment for your faith, you have been mocked or ridiculed for being a Christian. The reality is this can be enough to silence us from boldly talking about the good news of Jesus. Many of us don’t really know what persecution is yet we get offended when we are treated less than perfectly and we are following God. It’s almost like we think God owes us because we are following Him.

So again I ask: Do we rejoice or have we bought into the lie that a blessed Christian life is a persecution-free life?

Let’s get this right today. We should be eternally grateful to God for saving us into a loving relationship with Him rather than us getting the deserved penalty of death for our sins. Gratitude, yes even in the face of real persecution, should be the attitude of every Believer, but it will only happen as we focus more on God and less on ourselves.