Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven…”
To be mistreated by people is a very painful thing. Especially when those people are those who are the closest to you.
Once a person makes the decision to follow Jesus with all of their heart, very often the members of their own family become their enemy. Jesus said that we were going to have to make a decision as to whether or not we were going to follow Him, no matter what the cost.
Matthew 10:35-37 “For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
If you have known the Lord for any amount of time, you no doubt have already experienced what Jesus is talking about. When I was just 19 years old I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. As soon as I told my parents about what I had experienced, they immediately began to treat me differently. I tried to tell them repeatedly about Jesus but I was rejected, ridiculed, and even fired from a job working for my father, because I repeatedly told those I worked with about Jesus.
Over the course of the next year, all of my oldest and closest friends wished me well in my new “religious experience”, but made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with Jesus. Those were difficult and painful days. I felt lost and alone and often wondered if I had made the right decision in following Jesus.
That was 36 years ago, and since that time the Lord has given me an entirely new family of friends who also love the Lord. My mother and father received Jesus in the last years of their life and have gone on to heaven now. I have enjoyed almost four decades of wonderful fellowship with my new family of friends who love the Lord.
Jesus said that when your family and friends revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely because of your relationship with Him, to Rejoice.
Rejoice, how can a person rejoice when their family and friends reject and revile them? Jesus said that when you endure it quietly for His sake, that He has prepared a very special reward for all those who go through these very hurtful moments.
So… The next time that someone reviles you or makes an unkind comment about your relationship with Jesus, just walk over to them and ask to shake their hand. Tell them “Thank you for doing that to me because the Bible says that when you make fun of me or ridicule me for following Jesus and I endure it, that Great is my reward in Heaven, so Thanks for getting me such a great big reward.”
If they didn’t already think that you were weird for the way that you follow Jesus, they will now after they have heard you thank them for being mean to you.
Endure all the difficult things in life that come along and Jesus will take notice and bring a huge reward for you when He Returns. He sees what you are going through and He cares. He also wants for you and I to experience this kind of suffering because it brings us into an awareness of what Jesus went through when He was lied about, slandered, and had all manner of evil said and done to Him.
When we endure suffering quietly and patiently, knowing that the Lord has a reward for us at the end of our life, He is well pleased. On the day that Jesus returns to take you to be with Him He will most certainly say to you: ”Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Lord…”
Rob Robinson
