March 23, 2023

Passage Read: Psalm 43-46
Meditation Verses: 44:15-17

Thought

"All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted," Paul wrote, and that is the truth. The psalmist is confessing that truth here: Though he has done nothing wrong in the eyes of the Lord, yet he is still treated as an enemy by those around him. There is no getting around the truth: The more faithfully we walk with the Lord, the more faithfully we walk in His ways, the more men will hate us and oppose us. Some will believe, some will be drawn to us, but they are destined to be fewer than those who hate us. Even Jesus warned His disciples that the world would hate them as surely as it hated Him. We seek all kinds of ways to prove Jesus wrong, to keep the world from hating us, convincing ourselves that we've found the secret to sharing Christ in a friendly way, that we can have the world and Jesus too, but we only deceive ourselves. We're not so smart as to beat Jesus; we're loving the world and happily sending it to its doom!

Application

I don't want to stir up trouble; I don't want people to hate me. But it seems like there's no two ways about it: Either I love Jesus and walk in His ways or I love the world and grab all I can from it. I cannot serve two masters; if someone says I can, they lie, because Jesus wouldn't deceive me and He said it's impossible. So I need to give up my hopes for an easy, comfortable life if I want to follow Jesus; He does require giving up everything, even my dignity, even being liked by everyone...including those who are supposed to like people "sold out" to Jesus.