The hidden blessings of persecution

We know that God is good and cares for us always. When he allows us to face trials and persecutions it is because they can help us to mature in our walk with the Lord:

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28-29)

AS Christians we find great comfort in these words of the Lord. The apostle Paul went through many hardships, he faced many persecutions and suffered a lot for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what he was talking about when he wrote these words of faith in the sovereignty of God. He trusted the goodness and wisdom of God. He rested in the fact that God is in full control even when we don’t understand why bad things are happening to us.

We will now turn to several Bible verses to try to understand why Christians must face sufferings and trials. Hopefully we will discover the hidden blessings of persecution and troubles through these Bible verses.

Exercise:

Have you ever been persecuted? In what way?

What did it do to you as a person to go through that experience?

Trials can develop our character

Dear brothers and sisters,whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. (James 1:2-4)

The word of God is actually saying that trials are hidden opportunities for joy and development. If we respond with faith we will grow in endurance and maturity. In fact, trouble is meant to develop a Christ-like character in us!

Trials and suffering can produce patience and hope

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. (Romans 5:3-4)

Again we discover that when we face problems and trials, they are good for us! They are learning opportunities. They produce strengths of character in us of patience and hope.

Trials can help us to focus on Christ and the invisible realities

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits arebeing renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

God will restore us and make us strong in trials

Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. All power is his forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:8-11)

Suffering can teach us to pay attention to God’s principles

The suffering you sent was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your principles. (Psalm 119:71)

Trials test and purify our faith and lives

These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. (1.Peter 1:7)

I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. (Isaiah 48:10)

Let the whole world bless our God and sing aloud his praises. Our lives are in his hands, and he keeps our feet from stumbling. You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver melted in a crucible. You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs. You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies. We went through fire and flood. But you brought us to a place of great abundance. (Psalm 66:10-12)

Trials are actually signs of God’s appreciations of our faith and character. Because our faith is precious to God, he will purify it to enable us to handle more of his blessings!

Trials make us partners with Christ in his suffering and partakers of his glory

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world. Be happy if you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God will come upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his wonderful name! (1 Peter 4:12-16)

As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, (Philippians 3:10)

But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us—is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)

In trials we can become an example to others

In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. (2 Corinthians 6:4-5)

Paul says that he proved himself by his purity, understanding, patience, kindness, and sincere love that he was able to show because of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in him.He preached the truth faithfully in the midst of calamities. He trusted God’s power to work in him. He served God whether people honoured him or despised him, whether they slandered him or praised him. He was honest, even though they called him an impostor. He was well known, but he was treated as unknown. He lived close to death. He had been severely beaten many times. His heart ached, but he always had joy. He was poor, but he gave spiritual riches to others. He owned nothing, and yet he had everything.

So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord. As a result, you yourselves became an example to all the Christians in Greece.And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere, even beyond Greece, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God. (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7)

Suffering can educate us and qualify us as counsellors

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sourceof every mercy and the God who comforts us.He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. So when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your benefit and salvation! For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in suffering, you will also share God’s comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

When we face troubles we also experience the comfort of God, who is the God of all mercy and comfort. He is educating us to qualify us as counsellors. He is teaching us how to encourage and help people who are facing similar hardships to the ones that we have been through.

Persecution can even further the gospel witness

A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles fled into Judea and Samaria. (Some godly men came and buried Stephen with loud weeping.) Saul was going everywhere to devastate the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into jail. But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. (Acts 8:1-5; 16:25-35)

And I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters,that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including all the soldiers in the palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, many of the Christianshere have gained confidence and become more bold in telling others about Christ. (Philippians 1:12-14)

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

God uses trials and suffering to show his sovereignty

The story of Joseph is a very moving story of a young boy being chosen by God to go through sufferings to bring honour to the sovereign God. In this story we discover that people may mean things they do to us for evil, but God is able to turn it into something good!

And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt. But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it. He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive so that you will become a great nation. Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you! And he has made me a counsellor to Pharaoh—manager of his entire household and ruler over all Egypt. (Genesis 45:5-8;

But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. No, don’t be afraid. Indeed, I myself will take care of you and your families.” And he spoke very kindly to them, reassuring them (Genesis 50:20).

Exercise:

Which of these blessings mentioned above do you find, a. most comforting, b. most challenging? Explain why!

Continue to memorise this portion of Scripture:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans (8:35-39)