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Cost & Blessings of Obedience
September 01, 2014
| By: Sam McVay, Jr. |
Category: Mid-week Devotion |
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Notes
"If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." 1 Peter 4:14If you read the book of Acts and the epistles you begin to see that the apostles processed trouble and pain differently than we do.
It is clear that that they believed persecution and rejection, for the sake of radical loyalty to Jesus, was a blessing. To them suffering for obedience was painful but led ultimately to eternal pleasure. To often there is an "unspoken doctrine" that gets taught in the church which basically says- if you obey God then your life will be trouble-free. This is the complete opposite of the witness of the scriptures. In fact, wholehearted obedience to Jesus and his call on your life will undoubtedly bring the resistance and rejection of even some of those very close to you. In our age of ease, where we want a mostly pain-free life, this reality can cause us to compromise and drawback on 100% obedience to the truth.
But even though there is this inevitable trouble when we go "all in" with the Lord, there is also tremendous blessing that comes with it. The apostle Peter explains that when we are suffering for Christ, and obedience to his call, that we actually are blessed because the Spirit of glory will rest upon us. This happened when Stephen was stoned, it happened when Paul was beaten, and it can happen to you when you experience resistance or rejection for your loyalty to Jesus.
Beloved, I pray that through this ministry you are emboldened to greater love and loyalty to Jesus. And that you process trouble like the apostles. May we even learn to delight in what once brought us dread because we love the experience of the Spirit of glory resting upon us to sustain our witness.
Mildly suffering with joy,
Sam
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