12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12-13

God must give us a certain humility to accept and rejoice in this kind of suffering, because it’s certainly not natural for us. We may try to put a positive spin on it in the natural, but God must give us the supernatural to endure

Even as I write this, there are many around the world who are enduring unspeakable hardships because they are believers, because they dared to name the name of Christ as their Lord and Savior. God gives them grace in ways we can only imagine. They didn’t need it two weeks ago when everything was fine, but they need it now because on their own, they can’t handle it.

I’ll be honest and say I don’t understand that kind of grace becasue I’ve not been through the horrendous persecution.

We don’t know when it will be or even if it will be in our lifetime, but we in the West will be persecuted. The anti-Christian forces are doing their best to make us targets.

But God has said it over and over again that we will be persecuted for our faith so we need to take him at his word in this.

Are you ready? How does one prepare? We’ll discuss this tomorrow.