Blessed Are You When They Revile And Persecute You...

Jesus' sermon on the Mount covers a variety of teachings that provide valuable guidance for believers in their journey of faith. In Matthew 5, Jesus starts with the Beatitudes and in this account by Matthew, our focus will be on the last beatitude.

       
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Persecution can take many forms, and we may not always recognize it for what it truly is. To persecute means to persistently harass, oppress, torment, afflict, torture, annoy, or cause trouble for someone. 

But Jesus says "Blessed are you" when they do these things to you for My sake. 

The word blessed means to be divinely favored, to have good fortune, and to be worthy of deep reverence and respect. We as believers are blessed when we are reviled and persecuted for Jesus' sake.

There are stories of people in other parts of the world who are continuously tortured and killed for declaring Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Some people are unable to pray as they would like just like the early Christians who were killed for believing in Jesus and declaring His word. For those of us who have the freedom to serve the Lord and worship him freely, we are blessed. Let us continue to pray that the same freedoms are given to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Being persecuted comes in all forms. It may even come from those who claim to love us. I know a friend whose family turned against him for speaking the word of God. They oppressed, tormented, and degraded him in any way they could because they did not want to hear him preach the word of God. Those same family members almost cost him his life, reputation, and sanity because of the many evil things they did to him and said about him. Looking back he said, he never thought his own family would do those things to him but he loves them nevertheless because He realizes that Jesus was persecuted and we too will be persecuted for His sake. He's happy he went through that, for now, he has a testimony that encourages others going through the same thing.

Jesus said, "A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also" John 15:20. Jesus' persecutions are comparable to what we have to go through. It is not too much for us to bear, we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ!

In verse 12 it says, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.


Rejoice! Be exceedingly glad! How many of us can say that when going through persecution? Not an easy feat! But it is attainable! We have to remember that great is our reward in Heaven. The Prophets, Jesus, and The Disciples were all persecuted before us, so if we are partakers in the faith, declaring the word of God, we too are subject to the same decree.

Continue to persevere brothers and sisters in Christ! When going through those turbulent times, if you need to cry, scream, vent etc. do so in a way that honors God and pray continuously. Pray your way through it all. In the end, our reward is greater than what we have to endure.

May God continue to bless you!

The Battle of The Word

Matthew 4 details the temptation of Christ and the beginning of His ministry. 

The very first verse starts off with, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." This verse here conveys that this temptation was inevitable and almost a rite of passage for Jesus, seeing that he was led up by the Spirit. Something monumental occurred before this temptation and something even more monumental was ahead of Jesus after the temptation. The temptation occurred right after Jesus' baptism which further illustrates that this was something that Jesus had to go through. This temptation revealed to us that even Jesus was not immune to the temptations of the devil. However, Jesus was able to overcome the devil's temptations using the word of God.

The temptation of Jesus is what I like to call the "battle of the word." Jesus who is referred to as the Word of God (John 1:1) was using the word of God to rebuke the devil's words. Isn't it interesting that the devil would use the very thing that Jesus embodied? 

The devil contorts scripture to get Jesus to do what he wants. Remember that this was after Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights in the desert. Jesus was weak physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually He was quite strong. The devil comes to tempt us at our weakest moments or times in our lives, we are not immune to this. It will happen. However, do not be worried or fearful, Jesus showed us that the only way to win this battle is to be armed with the word of God. Speak God's word, defeat the enemy.

Jesus was about to begin his ministry, he was fasting, connecting with God and that is when the devil saw an opening to deter him from his path, from his purpose. Jesus was prepared. As believers, it is important to know the word of God. The devil showed how one can take the scripture out of context just for the purpose of leading you astray. 

Therefore, it is so important to read the scriptures, the word of God, the bible. As Paul states in 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." As we see here every temptation that the devil set before Jesus, Jesus used the word of God to rebuke and overcome the devil.

Imagine if Jesus had fallen victim to these temptations, where would we, as humanity, be? Take a minute or two and really ponder that. I honestly don't want to imagine it. I'm just grateful that Jesus won the battle for us.

Jesus serves as an example for us all, that regardless of what temptation comes our way, even at our lowest and weakest moment, we should hold on to the word of God. Fight your battles, armed with the word of God. I know firsthand how speaking the word of God gave me strength and kept me moving forward when all seemed dark and bleak. My only defense was the word of God. That is all I needed and it is all you need. Whenever we feel overwhelmed by whatever is going on in our lives, find a scripture that will encourage you and keep you moving closer to God.

What is amazing about the temptation of Christ is that after Jesus rebuked the devil, the angels came and ministered to Him (Matthew 4:11). This serves as another example that after we have fought our battles and held on to the word of God as our pillar, as our defense, God will send His angels to minister, to help, to tend to us and to aid us.

Let us continue to fight the "battle of the word" and the only way we can truly win this battle is to know the word of the living God. Let us get absorbed in it so that when those temptations, trails and tribulations come our way, we may win the battle, just like Jesus showed us that we can.

I pray God's blessing upon you and your household. Shalom!