Daily Devotional

Saturday, August 28, 2010

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,

  for theirs is the kingdom of God.

When you follow God and live by His instruction, seeking to be filled with His spirit, and live in his righteousness, there are two possible responses people can have who stay around you.

John 3:20-21 says, “for every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. [That is one possible response: hating the light and not accepting it.] But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. [That is the other possible response: doing the truth and coming to it and freely admitting that all good in us is accomplished by God.]”

It seems the two options are persecution or conversion, but, we ask, what about all the unbelievers in my life who are neither converted nor persecuting. There are a couple of possibilities we must explore.

One is that your light is under a bushel. You are not living boldly for Christ. (Galatians 5:11;6:12-13). Perhaps others cannot even recognize that your life has been redeemed.

Another possibility is that you are letting your light shine, and that people in your life are moving in what direction or the other; neither response must be immediate. We see often in the gospels when the Pharisees were angered but were kept by politics from expressing their anger in outright persecution. Neither persecution nor conversion will always happen immediately. In fact, many people are torn inside themselves, partly hating the claims of Christianity in your life, partly attracted by them.

So we should all examine ourselves to see if we are playing a kind of cowardly Christian, and if so, we should repent and resolve to be more sincere in the expression of who we really are. But we must not assume that, because there is no persecution right now and no conversion right now, the fault must lie with us. Someone in your life may be very near conversion, or the storm may be ready to break against you.

Prayer:

Lord, reveal to me whether or not I am shining brightly for you. I pray that I would be a light, and that your glory would be evident in my life; that it would shine with distinction. Let others see me and have no choice but to see you, whether that is attractive or offensive to them.