Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 13; Jeremiah 14; Jeremiah 15; John 15
Scripture: John 15:18-20
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also..."
Observation: Jesus makes it clear that I am not here to win some sort of popularity contest. That's a relief because "the world" sure is not beating a path to my door! Sometimes it gets discouraging to see the direction the world is headed. But Jesus warned us that the life we are called to live is in sharp contrast to the world. We are supposed to be swimming upstream, against the flow of our culture.
Application: It's simple. I shouldn't be surprised that non-christian people don't love what I stand for. But I must stand for truth and right and justice anyway, even in the face of scorn or persecution. (Actually, I have never faced real persecution -- just a little disapproval.)
Prayer: Lord, help me to worry about one thing: pleasing You. Make me a doer of what is right regardless of the environment I'm in. May I follow You and You alone, taking up my own cross every day.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
1 comment:
We usually think it's mainly young people that need this lesson about standing on their own and not concerning themselves with being popular but I think adults struggle with this as much as youth do. I believe it's why we witness for Jesus so little. We don't want to take the chance of being told to mind our own business, or worse, that we're "whack jobs". I need to have a higher value on God's disapproval than on man's.
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