Daily Devotional

Sunday, August 29, 2010

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,

  for theirs is the kingdom of God.

In order to rejoice and be glad in the suffering of persecution, must you not believe that the suffering itself enlarges your reward in heaven? If the same reward in heaven could be obtained without suffering, would we not cry out against the uselessness of suffering rather than being glad to embrace it?

If nothing more comes of suffering than of not suffering, why embrace it with joy? What gave Rowland Taylor and Bishop Ridley and John Bradford the impulse to kiss the stakes at which they were burned? What moved Obadiah Holmes, after ninety lashes turned his back to jelly for Jesus, to say to the magistrates, "You have struck me with roses"? Why did Thomas Hardcastle say that persecution is "a precious season of grace"?

I think the answer is that the more your faith is tested through suffering, the greater will be your reward. I think this is taught in Matthew 19:29 ("And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life"), but especially in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

He says that affliction "prepares" or "brings about" an eternal weight of glory. As Charles Hodge says, Afflictions are the cause of eternal glory. Not the meritorious cause, but still the procuring cause. God has seen fit to reveal his purpose not only to reward with exceeding joy the afflictions of his people, but to make those afflictions the means of working out that joy.

In other words, rejoice and be glad in the midst of suffering for righteousness and for Jesus, because that very suffering will receive a very great compensation and a very great reward. And the greater the suffering your faith endures, the greater the reward you will receive in heaven. So rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven!

Prayer:

 Lord, I confess that my desire is not to rejoice in persecution, but to avoid it if at all possible. I pray, Lord, that you would change my spirit that I may face persecution with boldness, thankfulness, and joy.