“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.” (Matthew 13:44 NLT)
Every morning, I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ who live in the shadows of persecution. It’s impossible for us to even imagine what that looks like for them, so, admittedly, I struggle some mornings to find words to describe what I’m asking God to do for them.
While on a mission’s trip years ago, our team visited a small village that included a church that had been reconstructed by the wives whose husbands had been burned alive in their presence. Someone asked me to pray, but I couldn’t. I could hardly breathe as I contemplated the sacredness of the very spot upon which I stood.
It’s incomprehensible to most of us what it means to risk what those faithful wives risked honoring their husbands’ memory, but more to the point, to honor the Lord for whom their husbands gave their lives. They didn’t take the risk begrudgingly, but joyfully.
How much joy would you have if you lived with the prospect that at any second someone could burst into your house, snatch your children, murder you or demand that you leave with nothing but the clothes on your back? It’s no wonder so many American “Christians” have such shallow faith, it’s rarely tested.
In a Turning Point devotion Dr. David Jeremiah wrote: “Petr Jasek, a worker with Voice of the Martyrs, was arrested in Sudan and imprisoned for 445 days, sometimes being housed with ISIS warriors. Other times he was in solitary confinement or crammed into overcrowded cells with convicts.
For the first five months he was without his Bible, but he sustained himself on his Bible memory verses and hymns. Occasionally he was able to exchange mail with his family, and in one letter home he wrote, ‘The longer I’m in prison, the greater my joy grows, and from Jesus’s nail-pierced hand, I am experiencing new touches. All of this we can explain only by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who has loved us. I am living, knowing, and feeling the tremendous protection and intervention from God’s hands, especially when there is danger… God is giving me strength in my weakness… and He will be the One who finishes this fight instead of me.’”
We have such a distorted view of what joy is, never seeming to realize that joy isn’t an emotion; something we feel when we’re happy or when everything is going our way. It’s the decision we make for the privilege of being a child of God, regardless of how we feel or how horrible our circumstances may be. There are times I’m almost ashamed to admit I’m a child of God for fear someone will wrongly assume all believers in Jesus should have it as easy as me.
A. W. Tozer wrote: “Most Christians want a thrill or joy, but do not want holiness or the purity of a Spirit-filled life.” The longer the Lord tarries His return the higher the risk becomes that we’ll find out firsthand what persecution really looks like. Then we’ll know with certainty what our faith “house” is built upon.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 