Saturday, May 28th, 2022
Persecution Complex
Do we Christians, especially those of us in the West, have a persecution complex? Recently I saw a video in which Tim Keller compared the relatively modest resistance we experience in North America to the types of difficulties believers face in countries like North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Libya, to name a few. I'm not saying that it's easy to be a Christian here, but I think it's always important to balance one's emotion with a bit of reality.
Yes; at one time, Christian faith was a good example of social morality, and today we live in a world where sometimes we are considered immoral for holding our beliefs.
Yes; we have foes. We can use Psalm 83 as a template for our prayers, as we plead with God to break his silence, to bring justice in the midst of our suffering.
As I studied this Psalm, one thing really stuck out to me. It is eighteen verses long, and for the first seventeen, the psalmist appears to be trying to make his case to God, trying to tell God what's happening to His people--as if God doesn't know! He is setting the scene, explaining how God haters are raising their heads, laying crafty plans, conspiring and encouraging one another. The psalmist lists all the countries involved, and then asks God to do to them as He has done in the past. He asks God to destroy them, to make them like chaff, to burn them up, to perish, etc. etc.
However, in my opinion, the most important verse is the last one: “Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.”
As we face the challenges of living in an upside-down world, we have little power over the culture. We can get angry about the state of affairs, and moan about our loss of moral status, but we really can't change things by getting angry and calling down fire and brimstone! We can only change things by putting on Christ: we must become like him, and love like he did. We must turn our stiff necks to the left and the right, looking for the overlooked, the lost, the hurting, the hungry, and the outcast, and wash their feet!
Let's pray as Jesus prayed, when he asked the Father that we might be unified, in John 17:15-23. Look at verse 21: “I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.”
That's how we change the world! That's how we face persecution! The world will believe when we start loving the unlovable.
Amen