Malachi 4:1-6; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-28
Thomas Edison once said "The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work." Jesus would probably find a lot to agree with in Edison's comment. However, Jesus didn't describe opportunity in terms of hard work but of hard circumstances. As He explained to His disciples how terrible things would get when the world’s resistance to the Gospel grows more and more intense as the Last Day approaches, He gave them (and us) His perspective of those terrible days. “This will be your opportunity to bear witness,” Jesus said. Time has proven Jesus to be right. Whenever the Church has faced great hardship and persecution faithful disciples of Jesus have used the opportunities to share the Gospel. Many were put to death for bearing their witness. But, as the early church leader Tertullian (160-225 AD) wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
Why is it that Christians under persecution, even facing death for the Faith, can see in their hardships opportunities to bear witness to Jesus while we consistently and habitually miss those opportunities in our safe and protected circumstances? Even though our religious rights are eroding through legislation and court actions, we are free to speak of Jesus in our everyday lives with little or no risk of persecution. And when we do face some hardships for bearing witness to Jesus, our troubles are trivial compared to Christians in different eras and believers in other parts of the world today. We’re not very good at recognizing opportunity in hardship. But, given that the hardships of being believers in our culture are only going to grow more widespread and more intense, we need to get better at it.
The inevitability of the hardship, suffering, and persecution of Christians is found in God’s Word. “The day is coming” Malachi declares. “The days will come” Jesus plainly states. “You will be delivered up” He warns us. It’s only a matter of when and where these things will happen to His Church. He tells us to be ready, to “not grow weary in doing good,” and to “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” And our redemption is drawing near and through us it is also drawing near to those who do not know the love, joy, and peace of Jesus but can and might if we take to heart that in these things will be our great opportunity to be witnesses of Jesus.
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