We will also discover that our Heavenly Father wants His children to respond to persecution in definite ways. We talked about those ways in yesterday's post (part 2). Jesus said: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12
Did you hear what Jesus said? There are REWARDS of persecution! There are PRESENT rewards. Rewards in the here and now. And there are FUTURE rewards. Rewards in the there and then.
The present rewards in the here and now isn't talking about entering the kingdom of heaven but about enjoying the kingdom. No matter how little we may have of material things, we enjoy God's spiritual riches. We don't have to wait until we get to heaven. Read the passage from Ephesians 1 below.
We have already been blessed with EVERY spiritual blessing! We were CHOSEN in him before the creation of the world. This hit me "like a ton of bricks" when I was teaching this lesson last Sunday and looked at an adult daughter sitting beside her mother. How absolutely awesome to realize that before that mother ever gave thought to having that daughter, God had CHOSEN that daughter and purposed for her to live a holy and blameless life before Him.Here and now - the living King dwells within us and gives us the fullness of kingdom life spiritually.
We also have the promise of future reward - the there and then of spending eternity face-to-face with the beautiful Son of God in all His majesty! Oh glorious thought! When we see Him as He is, we shall be like Him. (1 John 3:2) Oh, sweet sisters, can you even imagine it??
The riches of the kingdom of God - in the here and now AND the there and then - are all ours! But, oh girls, we are so shortsighted. We don't see our sufferings for the momentary events they are. We don't give those moments to God and secure an eternal weight of glory. We don't realize that the persecution which is now a normal part of our dedicated Christian living is refining us to be more like Christ. Peter wrote: "...now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Kay Arthur gives the following illustration in her book, Lord, Only You Can Change Me, p.216:
"When silver is first extracted from the earth, it is tainted by various impurities. Purification occurs in a crucible over a hot flame.
The process of heating the metal to a molten state and skimming off the impurities may be repeated as often as seven times, with each purifying fire more intense than the last. In this way, the metal finally yields the last of its impurities, leaving pure silver behind.During the purification process, the silversmith skims off the dross that floats to the top of the liquid silver. Looking into the smooth pool of molten metal, the craftsman searches for his own reflected image on the surface. At first the image is very dim, and he knows that impurities remain. So he builds the fire to an even greater intensity. He never leaves the crucible unattended but hovers over it, watching it closely. He repeats the process over and over until, finally, he can see a clear and perfect image of himself. When the silver become a mirror, he knows it is pure.
This, Beloved, is how suffering and persecution prepare us for glory. It is a fire God uses to consume the dross of our lives so that we finally reflect a clear and perfect image of Him."Oh, sweet sisters, let's praise the One Who is a Refiner and Purifier and yield ourselves to Him.
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