Let the Lord Help You

Posted: 04 May 2009 09:00 PM PDT
Acts 11:19-26 / Jn 10:22-30
As their persecution by the Jews became more widespread and virulent, vast numbers of Jewish Christians fled their homeland and became refugees in distant lands. But even in that circumstance of total rejection by their own people, it was a mental struggle for them to leap the hurdle of their own lifelong prejudice against non-Jews. But they did it. Slowly at first, they began to talk "even to the Greeks" about the Good News of Jesus. And large numbers were added to the Lord.

It’s interesting to speculate whether that change of heart, that willingness to welcome people they had always rejected, would have happened if those first Christians had not had the experience of being rejected themselves. What great good God can bring out of great pain and sadness, if we are willing to listen to Him and take His guidance!

Old habits die hard, sometimes only in the fire of suffering. When those times of sadness or suffering do make their inevitable appearance, don’t run away and don’t despair. There is growth and good hidden somewhere in every pain and in every tragedy. Let the Lord help you find it.