September 26
When we are safely within the fold of faith, our worries are over, right? We would like to hope so. We would like to embrace the ideology of the ‘prosperity gospel’ that tells us that once we’ve accepted Jesus the path ahead of us will wend through some beautiful, secure places.
But that ignores the evidence of the scriptures where we see each apostle (other than John who died of old age on the Isle of Patmos after being exiled there) being cruelly tortured and executed because of his unswerving faith in the Christ whose person and whose gospel he loved better than life.
It negates the evidence of the lives of people of faith through the centuries who have endured hardship and pain and ostracism and death because they counted Jesus and His Word the Bible to be the only Truth in a world of lies. And they esteemed that Truth to be worthy of their own lives if that became the price they had to pay to embrace it.
Jesus warns us through His admonition to Peter in Luke 22:31, 32, “Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat that he may destroy you, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” That prayer covers us, too. Jesus desires that we be strong for Him, that we not allow either the blessings or the hardships of the Christian life to cause us to divert our eyes from Him who is Life.
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