Persecution Promised

 Luke 21: 12-19

Stand Firm

 ¹² “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

Jesus continues to lay out the path of suffering and persecution for his disciples.  As it proved true for them, the early Christians, and Christians through the centuries,  so it does to our own day. A grim thought on the cusp of Thanksgiving, but there is a happy note:  "Stand firm, and you will win life." We may lose our lives in this world, but if for his sake, then we will win eternal life in the next. May we find hope, strength and courage as we meditate on this passage, and even be able to muster up a prayer of thanksgiving for All that is going on in our world and in our lives.  Hidden beneath it is a blessing.  We need to learn to trust more in order to find it.

Bro. Rene