Second Challenge
The second challenge has to deal with the level of hate that results in persecution and trials for all who abandon the ways of the world and accept God and as such decides to live for Christ. Those who have decided to walk the recommended path of Jesus Christ been administered through the word of God under the leadership and influence of the Holy Spirit. These individuals have to continual deal with various trials and hardship because of this stance they have taken in the Lord.
As indicated in the above paragraph, any person who has decided to follow the Lord has automatically become an enemy of the ruler of this world which is the devil and hence he will raise all hell against the believer with the objective to discourage the believer from pursuing the things of Christ and eventually stop the believer from fulling their call in Jesus Christ. The reason been it is only through the accomplish work of Christ and those carrying the accomplish work of Christ, that has defeated and continue to defeat the enemy and his kingdom. Hence He will do all that he can to discourage the believer from doing and serving the Lord faithfully. Secondly, he just doesn’t want the work of Christ to continue knowing that when a person lives for Christ through their lifestyle and also pursue evangelism to win souls to Christ a person is saved and brings joy to the Lord. Hence the enemy will do all things in his power to make sure this does not happen. Hence with these reasons and more the enemy uses the world as a resistant against the believer to stop the believer from their services and reverence to God.
A prime example is recently Iris just started an Ice cream company and has been doing extremely well across the city and state she runs her business. The business has grown leaps and bounds and employs a lot of people in the state and also is involved in many communities funding. They have always indicated the company is a Christian company and their operation is based on their Christian values. This means they are pro-life and against any form of abortion. This hard stance they have taken has resulted in a lot of organization who are pro-choice to declare their stance not to buy any of her company ice cream products. And this stance has really hurt their operations and their business. And because of this had to close some stores so to remain profitable and sustainable. Instead of backing down on their stance of pro-life and funding and supporting pro-life organization, they have even voice out more their stance that if the business will have to be dissolve because of their stance. They are ready to dissolve and will not let down on their values of being against every form of abortion because God is the one who gives life and is the final judge of all life.
As they declare their continuous effort to stand behind their values, after a while of operations tumbling, business has started to pick up as many of the Christian organization and groups have also rally around them and many who are also pro-life and indifferent have decided to support their business. And because of these series of event their business has begun to experience tremendous participation which has led to increasing sales and growth, that has resulted into reopening some of the stores they close.
The story above is what it means by the persecution which arises from following Christ. The company experience this persecution but they continue to stand for Christ in the midst of their persecution, and the Lord was faithful and touch many hearts to begin to patronize their business. And this turn the tables around again as their business begun to pick up.
This is just an example of the persecution that comes from following the Lord. The good news is the more the believer is able to stand for the Lord, the lord always makes a way and grant the believer victory as seen in the story above.
Today if you are facing persecution, continue to stand for the Lord, continue to do good because eventually God will honor your faithfulness and make a way where there seems no way.
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