Withstanding People's Scorn

 There are times in our lives, as believers, that we know the right thing to do in a situation, but we let our fear of what others will say or do keep us from doing the right thing. We call this giving in to peer pressure. We end up letting what our "peers," the people around us and who are on our level, lead us to do the wrong thing. That really should never happen to any believer, if we would just get our thinking right.

God told His people this truth very plainly. (Isaiah 51:7) "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." Once we know right from wrong because we know and cherish God's law in our hearts, we should know that we need to fear the Lord, not other people. We should desire the praise of God much more than the praise of others. Please, take a few minutes to ponder this truth.

Why would we listen to others more than we listen to God? I pray that we will all realize that when we do that, we are really telling God that He doesn't mean as much to us as other people mean to us. That means we are not honoring God first in our lives. Yes, we may believe in Jesus. We may even cherish His law in our hearts, but we do not practice it as we should because we care more about what other people think than we do about what God thinks of us. Let's not let that happen to us.

I know that it hurts when people scorn us. They say bad things about us. They insult us to our face or behind our backs. We should put that hurt aside. We should wear it as a badge of honor. They scorned Jesus. They insulted Him. They will scorn us and insult us, too, if we do His will and stand up for Him. Therefore, when people scorn us, it is a sign that we are doing what it right. That should be so important to us that we do not let their hurt influence us. We must let God's law lead us to do the right thing, no matter what others say.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 52-54.