Thoughts on Persecution and the Hand of God

“Psalm 129 “From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me.  Let all Israel repeat this:  From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me.  My back is covered with cuts, as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.  But the Lord is good; He has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.”
 
When you read today’s headlines, do you feel the enemy, Satan and His demons, attacking you personally or our country’s beginning ideals?  Do you feel the opposition to God’s plan for mankind and the commands He gave designed for our welfare and relationship with Him?  Have you worried over the shift in America away from respecting the rights of Christian religious views and the respectful, quality debate of ideas? 

Indeed, there has been a shift in the United States!  When public schools were first begun in America, the Bible was the basis of teachings, with lessons in books such as McGuffy Readers being based on Bible passages.   In 1953 and 1954, when I was in the first and second grades, my class began the day with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.   By the third grade, many years before the Supreme Court ruling that officially removed prayer from public schools in 1962, prayer had already disappeared from my classroom.  Even I, as a child, noticed the difference!  Then there were the Christmas plays that disappeared after my third grade.  I remember this vividly as I played Mary in grades two and three.

GONE!   Removed from schools were prayer and the teaching of what Jesus summarized as the two greatest commandments:  “  ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.   A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”  Later, in addition to schools, prayer and God’s commandments were removed from our government’s buildings, policies, and legislation.  This had a disastrous effect on our nation, because now Satan could shift focus away from God’s morality and commands into the divisiveness that he knew would arise from the rationale of man and those set on evil.
               
How Satan has delighted in this shift, his goal always being the downfall of Christianity and the permanent separation of many from the love and peace found in eternity with God.  Today we see the enemy’s workings, with hatred, mob violence, and the aforementioned divisiveness being evidenced everywhere.  Christian views on morality are being ignored or threatened; evangelical Christians are being termed homophobic, racially prejudiced, white privileged, etc.   Cancel culture, critical race theory, and multi-gender theories are running rampant.   Though Christians are not sought out and martyred in America as they are in other parts of the world*, we are, it would seem, experiencing the birth pangs of persecution.

This is to be expected, as God promised persecution:   “Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”   1 Timothy 3:12  This is REALITY!  We know end times must come—they are part of God’s plan of redemption, and prayerfully, through the persecution of those days, many will come to repentance.  We know this is God’s desire, for He wishes no man to perish!  (2 Peter 3:9)
 
LET US NEVER FEAR, however!  As we face future days and possible personal  persecution, we are not to be afraid!  As verse 2 in Psalm 129 says:  “my enemies…have never defeated me . . .”  How beautiful are those words!  Take them to heart!   Also, focus on the next words that describe Jesus:  “My back is covered with cuts, as if a farmer had plowed long furrows.”    Jesus was whipped until He was unrecognizable: “But many were amazed when they saw Him.  His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.”  Isaiah 52:1  Yet Jesus was willing to submit Himself to this torture because His heart knew “. . . the LORD is good; He has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.”  WOW!  Jesus rose from the dead to be the King He always was!
 
These truths are for you!  Know that, in whatever you may fear, are going through now or will face in the future, God is GOOD!  He is with you, and when you trust in Him, He will free you from the ungodly.  He will place your feet on solid ground and steady you on the path of His truth and righteousness, giving you a new, heavenly song to sing!  (Psalm 40:1-3)
  
Dwell on the following verses this week, and let them lighten your heart and spirit, removing all fear!  Our God has earned the title of ALMIGHTY (think of the parting of the Red Sea)!  Your God is all-powerful, all-trustworthy, and desires with all His heart to affirm your hope In Him that will guide you into eternity with Him.  May you never doubt God’s unconditional  love for you, His presence in your life, and His faithfulness to His promises!

VERSES:

Is 59:15-16   “Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.  The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice.  He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed.  So He Himself stepped in to save them with His strong arm, and His justice sustained Him.”

Isaiah 43:13   “No one can snatch you out of My hand.  No one can undo what I have done.” 

Isaiah 51:7-8    “Listen to Me, you who know right from wrong, you who cherish My law in your hearts.  Do not be afraid of people’s scorn, nor fear their insults.  For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing.  The worm will eat at them as it eats wool.  But My righteousness will last forever.  My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”

Is 50:4-7    “He, the Sovereign Lord has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary.  Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will.  The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened.  I have not rebelled or turned away.  I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard.  I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting.  Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced.  Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do His will.  And I know that I will not be put to shame.”

Isaiah 51:12   “I, yes I, am the one who comforts you.  So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?

PRAYER:  Father God, I acknowledge that I don’t fully understand Your way of working in this world, for You have aptly taught me, “ ‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ ” says the Lord. “ ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.’ ”  Isaiah 55:8-9  Yet, in spite of my limited understanding, I choose to fully trust Your plan.   So, as I witness persecution rising in our country, help me never to fear but to always place Your truth before me.  You, and only You, are Almighty God, . . . powerful, loving, and compassionate.  You will never fail me, my LORD God;  You always will hold me in the palm of Your hand, and no matter what I may face in future years, You will never let me be snatched away.  Although I may not feel strength now, I trust You to give me that which I will need to sustain me through any and all future trials and/or persecution until I pass from this temporary home into my permanent one with You.”  I claim Your Word for my life:  “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”  Isaiah 41:10   You, Father God, are “my strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow!”  “Great is Thy Faithfulness”  Thomas Obadiah Chisholm    

SONG:  “Great is Thy Faithfulness”  by Thomas Obadiah Chisholm 

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
 
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love
 
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
 
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with 10, 000 beside
 
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
 
*See:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/january/christian-persecution-2021-countries-open-doors-watch-list.html  for an article with detailed analysis of Christian persecution in other countries and how to pray for those believers.

DISCLAIMER:  I am just an ordinary woman who loves Jesus, accepting Him as Savior at the age of thirty-two and digging into the Bible ever since.  How could I possibly hope to develop a heart relationship with God and trust Him with my life if I didn't know who He is?

These devotionals are written to help you journey with Christ and grow in your heart relationship with Him.  However, it is essential that you examine my words, and those of all other 'teachers," with God's Holy Word.  Therein lies the source of all truth!