When we face persecution, it is not wrong for us to pray for them to go away. But it is likely of no use. I am not saying here that God doesn’t hear our prayers, and we should stop praying. But I am saying our persecutions will likely not go away. Persecution will stay with us, until the day Christ returns. Nothing in the way Paul wrote in the Bible suggests our persecutions will go away. As a matter of fact, the Bible says the opposite. Persecution will increase as the Day of the Lord approaches. One of my friends who is pastor of a North Seattle church says that for many years, his community used to leave their church alone. Residents in the community may not necessarily be part of the church, or even participate in any of its events, but they mind their own business, and they let the church mind its own business. However, for a few years already, it has become clearer to my friend his community does not want them there in their neighborhood. They want the church to leave their community. They pray for the church to relocate elsewhere. Things like this is not happening in Federal Way or Northeast Tacoma. But why should we think it won’t happen one day? It is coming very soon.
Matthew 24.9
Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
Being persecuted for our faith certainly does not mean we, in some strange way, look for ways to be persecuted as if this proves to us we are living godly lives. We are not to provoke or make fun of unbelievers, or act weirdly, to make ourselves a target for persecution. We live godly lives not so we will be persecuted. Being persecuted is not the point. I might even say living godly lives is not the point. We live godly lives because we are being faithful. Being faithful is the point. What God desires is not for you and me to be persecuted. What God desires is for you and me to be faithful.
If we face persecution because we desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus, then what? What I meant to ask is what are we to do when we are persecuted? Do we sit back and allow the insults, slander and lies to continue, and do nothing? Well, the Bible says there is one thing we are to do when the people of this world persecute us. We are to pray for them. This is a hard teaching. When Jesus said we are to pray for them, I am pretty sure he didn’t mean we pray for God to convict them that what they are doing to us is wrong, and stop their persecutions. I am also pretty sure he didn’t mean we pray for them to become Christians so they will stop their persecutions. Rather, we are to pray for God to bless them. We are to pray for good things to come to them. How do I know this? Because immediately after Jesus taught us to pray for them, he explained that when we do that, we are doing the same thing our heavenly Father is doing when he “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God loves those who love him. But he loves those who hate him too. If we only know how to love those who love us, and we don’t love those who hate us, we have just proven to ourselves we do not know how to love, and we should not think we deserve any reward. If we cannot bring ourselves to pray for God to bless them, then our heart is not in the right place, and we have work to do.
Matthew 5.44–47
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
If you are in the middle of being persecuted by the people of this world because of your faith, understand that you are not suffering alone. Christ is not unaware what is happening. He sees us from heaven, and wants us to know that they persecuted him before they persecuted us. 1 John 15.18 says, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Christ and we are in this together. Not only this, but Christ says he is the reason why we are being persecuted. If we face zero persecution, it must mean Christ had left us alone, he had not chosen us, and none of this persecution would be happening. We face persecution because he chose us among many people in the world. We are not of this world, and for this reason, this world hates us. A crown of life is coming to each one of us from our Lord. Let us encourage each other.
John 15.19
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.