Tuesday; March 6

          Have you noticed how easy it can be to become spiritually soft?  I am not (necessarily) talking about diluting our message, rather I am referring to expecting that satan’s world should treat us “fair”.  Modern religious people are tempted to complain about not being giving equal footing with the non-believing world.  We feel put upon when we don’t get treated the same way as the non-churched world.  In essence, it has become easy to stomp our foot and shout, “They are being mean to us!”.  You know what – they are being mean to us and guess what, it is going to continue!  When Jesus assessed the world for His earliest disciples He remarked, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19).  Folks, the people of the world are going to be confrontational and unfair to Christians! 
          Now, having established this fact, how should we respond?  The truth of the matter is that the world doesn’t really care if we feel mistreated, so what is the benefit of fusing and whining about it?  Maybe a better approach is to gird ourselves up for battle!  Rather than complaining, maybe we should start confronting.  A few years after Jesus warned Christians of their fate, the Apostle Paul challenged believers, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (I Corinthians 16:13).
          We have learned that claiming to be victimized by the world won’t change it.  Let’s shed our crying towels and put on the armor of God.
          Think About It! 

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