Faith Brings Confrontation
Last week, I spent a great deal of time with the Lord. I apologize for not getting out a devotion on Friday, but today’s reading stirred up some deep thoughts I needed to process through scripture and prayer. I needed to be at the foot of my Savior. There truly is no better place to be. I have been a Christian for decades and my love for the Lord just continues to grow. That is the beautiful gift of God. Every season of my life has not been something that I am proud of. There were lessons learned through glorious praise and faith and lessons learned through failures and crushing blows to my pride. I prefer the former, but the latter leaves a more lasting impression.
What started my heart on this journey into self-reflection is not important. How God spoke to my heart is. These last few weeks have been a great and beautiful trip closer to the heart of my Lord. As my love has blossomed and my faith has grown, it has led to other problems. These other issues with those who resent and even hate my faith has reminded me that every time I have been truly walking in God’s path, someone has been offended by my journey. As we read through the book of Mark, we have seen, and will continue to see, Pharisees, scribes, Sadduccees, priests, and everyday people who rise up to oppose Jesus. They try to trick him. They try to find some mistake, some blasphemy, some crime in him. They block him, they confront him, they attempt to manipulate him. While we are not the Christ (so very far from it), Satan uses the same tactics against us. The more we look like him, the more the forces of Hell will hate us. In John 15:18-19, Jesus warned us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
It can be hard when that hatred comes from someone who is meant to love you. I believe Satan uses those closest to us in an attempt to derail our faith. I think back to when I first gave myself completely to God. I was in high school, and nothing compared with what I found in my Savior. Nothing could stop me from telling everyone about Him. I was on fire. I was devoted. I spent hours and hours searching and learning from God’s word. It was all new and fresh. For the first time in my turmoil filled young life, I had peace and love. My mother gave me a new nickname: Bible B@#ch. My freedom and joy rubbed her the wrong way. My faith was not welcome. My joy was despised.
That was the beginning. Hopefully I am somewhere in the middle. The pattern remains, and I see that it remains for all of us. The closer we grow towards Jesus, the more someone, somewhere will hate us because of it. Friends will betray us. Those we help may turn on us as well. The world itself will grow angry because of our faith. How can we expect anything different? Jesus warned us, but still we are caught off guard by the pain and the struggle. I want to share the end of Jesus’ words on how the world will hate us because of him. In Chapter 16:1-4 he added, “I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think it is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them.”
This world is temporary, whether it lasts ten years or a hundred. It was never meant to be our time of healing, our time of freedom, our time of safety and peace. Can we have those things in this life? Absolutely. These are gifts from our Father, but they are a foretaste of what He has in store for us. These are moments of reprieve in the battle as we await our home of eternal victory. We will be healed. We will be safe. We will be free of temptations and struggles. That hope is what we must cling to. “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (verse 33)
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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