Suffering Persecution

 

What does suffering mean?  Suffering means to experience pain or something unpleasant.  Suffering is a painful unpleasant feeling that can be mentally, physically, or emotionally experienced by a person.  What does persecute mean?  Persecute means to treat someone cruelly because of religious beliefs.  Persecution is the condition of being persecuted, harassed, annoyed, punished, or to afflict.

You probably are thinking I don’t want to suffer persecution.  It is okay, I didn’t want to experience pain or suffering either, but I realize that I am His, therefore I will suffer persecution.  How do I know?  Well the New Testament teaches that God’s people will suffer persecution.  The idea of the coming Messiah held that the suffering of God’s people is part of the coming of the kingdom – evidence that a person is truly one of God’s own.

For this scripture, replace the words me and I with you.  Also replace the word my with your.  1Peter 4:12-14 tells me, “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try me/you as though some strange thing happened to me/you, but rejoice to the extent that I/you partake of Christ’s sufferings that when His glory is revealed, I/you may also be glad with exceeding joy.  If I/you am/are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed am/are I/you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon me/you.  On their part He is blasphemed, but on my/your part He is glorified.”  So you see suffering persecution is a must, a requirement when we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior over our lives.  Now God is able to begin the work that He has planned to allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.  2 Corinthians 4:8-10 says, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”  Just as God sent His son Jesus to take upon Himself, the sins that we have committed, the suffering, and the persecution, we too will suffer persecution.  Now we may not experience the severe persecution as Jesus did on the cross, but if we do, we know where we are going.  The whole point is we are going to experience suffering and persecution in some form or fashion.

Think back to when you gave your life over to the Lord, or when you ask Him to forgive you for your sins and allowed Him to have His way with.  You started to talk different, walk different, you stopped going to the bar, and you started spending more time with The Heavenly Father.  This is when folk started to put you down, started to talk about you, always want to remind you how you use to be.  They started to persecute you, want to see you suffer, want you to struggle, and want you to feel pain.  These trials of suffering persecution are God’s way of pruning, shaping, and molding us into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ.  Romans 8:28-29 tells us, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew; He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  

Suffering persecution brings about trials to test our faith.  “So the scripture tells us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience.  Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  James 1:2-4.