Prepare To Face Trials
Anchor Scripture: “. . . whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the
same shall save it.” –
Mark 8: 35
Scripture
References: Esther 4: 11 – 16; Jeremiah 26: 20 – 24; Matthew 5: 10 – 12; Mark
8: 34 – 38; 1 Pet. 4: 12 – 16;
Admonition
Greetings
from the Throne of Grace!
Strictly
speaking, if God was going to juxtapose today’s practice of Christianity with
those of martyrs, who risked all, looked the devil in the face and told him to
go to hell because they were not going to botch their faith in Christ, I
wouldn’t know how many of us professing to be born-again Christians today would
make heaven.
Some years
ago, I read the gory story of a heavily bearded man whose three daughters and
wife were all cut down with machete in His presence because his assailants
wanted him to renounce his faith, which he faithfully declined. He looked at
his assailants and told them his greatest treasure was Jesus Christ, not these
(pointing at his murdered family) that you killed.
Sometimes,
God will allow the devil to test our faith and the truthfulness of our
profession; it happened to Job! Quite unfortunate, we have disappointed Him on
many of such occasions, only to return to church the following Sunday to raise
our “holy hands” in worship. So sad!
Brethren,
the truth be told, our stand in God is proven when the going gets tougher and
the seeming pleasures of Christianity are nowhere to be found. We are proven in
Him when fasting and prayers became of no effects and when heavens are totally
sealed against our prayers. Our stand is proven when all known Scriptures
become meaningless and powerless; when death stared us directly in the face and
the Saviour turned both the blind eye and the deaf ear. At these points, our
desire to FINISH STRONG in and with God is questioned, and I tell you, except
we put on Esther’s gab of “if I die, I die” we may never FINISH STRONG in and
with Him.
Esther did
what she did, not only for the Jews in Susa, but also to prove the God of the
Jews to the non-Jews in the land. The three Hebrew guys, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, nicknamed
Meshack, Shadrach and Abednego, too, were ready to die for their faith in God.
David risked his life in fighting Goliath in order to defend the Holy name of
God. Unfortunately, many of us today can’t even skip a meal for the same
purpose.
As we close today
brethren, all these “bread and butter Christianity” we are going about with may
not sustain our desire to FINISH STRONG in and with God. All the lies that most
Pastors tell us about grace covering us are what they are; LIES! More people
died for the course of the Kingdom of God after Jesus’ death and risen than
before. The admonition today is for us to take our stand in God and be ready to
defend our faith whenever situations called for it.
Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful
journey of FINISHING STRONG together, keep keeping on in Him!
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