If you have given your heart to Jesus, Jesus said that if they persecuted Him, they would persecute you and this would be a blessing, a good sign that you belong to Him.

Matthew 5:11-12 (Amplified Bible)

11 Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account. 12 Be glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great (strong and intense), for in this same way people persecuted the prophets who were before you. [II Chron. 36:16.]

When we give our heart to Jesus we become a threat to the forces of darkness, the closer we draw to Jesus, the more we will become a target. It is as if we have a target on our backs for the Devil to attack.

But we are not alone in this battle. The battle belongs to the Lord, and if we know how big our God is who lives on the inside of us, we can turn to Him to be our everything. We only have to look at the story of David and Goliath in 1Samuel 17 to understand the victorious way to look up on any adversary who looks like a giant.

Jesus did not die for us to have a comfortable life down here!

Matthew 10:39 (Amplified Bible)

39 Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life].

God needs labourers to let His Kingdom come here on earth in people’s hearts. He has given us free will. We can either choose to ignore Him and live our lives our ways, where most of our choices would lead us to death, or we can live His way, and have His victory in our lives.

This means that either He will see us through our difficulties or He will lift us out of them but He will never make us do it on our own, and if we truly trust in Him, though we may not see His hand in it at the time, when we look back, we really see how God used it to make us stronger in Him and draw us nearer to Him. God conquers all evil with good; we saw that in a big way at the Cross.

God is our encourager! Jesus Himself promised that we could find peace and confidence in Him in the middle of our battles:

John 16:33 (Amplified Bible)

33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

We need to build our faith up with what the Word of God says!

Philippians 4:13 (New International Version)

13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

1John 4:4 (New International Version)

4 The One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Romans 8:31,37 (New International Version)

31 If God is for us, who can be against us?

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Psalm 27:1 (New International Version)

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?

I pray that, whenever you come face to face with persecutions, you would turn to God to be your shelter and your strong tower and use His Word to defeat the enemy as Jesus did in the desert: “It is written…”, Amen!

  1. Why is persecution a good sign?
  2. What happens to people who enjoy their comfortable life here?
  3. How can we live a victorious life?