Suffering for the Gospel

 There are many thousands of Christians around the world who are suffering because of their belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been a fact of life for believers ever since Jesus died and rose again. There have always been people who wanted to cancel the Good News of Jesus, who wanted to kill all of the Christians, so the Gospel message would go away. They have never been successful, and they never will be successful. When we read Paul's second letter to Timothy, we are reading what Paul wrote from the prison in Rome. He was writing to encourage Timothy to remain strong in the Lord. He knew that Timothy was pretty timid, at times. Therefore, Paul gave a strong command to the young pastor. (II Timothy 1:8) He commanded Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus or of Paul, His prisoner. Instead, he encouraged Timothy to join with him in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. I pray that all of us, as believers, would take this admonition to heart and join the apostle Paul in this way.

Yes, it could happen in the USA. We could face suffering for being Christians, even in this country. People do not like for us to share the testimony of Jesus now. They are more and more antagonistic toward anyone who believes the Bible. What if Christians began to be put in jail? What if they started beating people who showed up for worship services? How would you respond? I pray we would not go silent and stay away from church services. I pray we would rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer for the gospel, as the believers were in the book of Acts.(Acts 5:41) Let's just decide right now that we will join the many believers around the world and Paul in suffering for the testimony of Jesus according to the power of God. Then, we will be prepared for whatever comes, and we will be even more bold now to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone we can.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Timothy 2-4 and Titus 1.