Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

BLESSING YOUR PERSECUTOR

This entry was posted on 02-14-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

Today's text may be one of the most difficult commands in Romans 12 for a Christian to obey. "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse" (v. 14 NKJV).

It is not our natural tendency to call down a blessing upon someone who has hurt us with cruel words, illegal actions, or even physical abuse. We would rather curse them - but cursing our enemies is not an option according to this passage. Even if we can manage to hold back a curse, we must still go the second mile. And what is that? It is asking God to bless our persecutor/enemy.

We have two splendid examples of doing this in Scripture. Jesus prayed for those who nailed Him to the cross. Stephen prayed for those who were stoning him to death. We also have many examples of early Christians who prayed for their persecutors (see Foxes Book of Martyrs). I have heard many amazing stories of persecuted Christians praying for their persecutors (Richard Wurmbrand, et al). I have also heard of some pretty amazing conversion stories of those who were doing the persecution. I believe that Stephen's dying prayer rang in the ears of Saul of Tarsus until he could bear it no more. The persecutor became a Christian! When persecuted we have a choice: call down fire (like James and John wanted to do, and like our flesh wants to do) or call down a blessing (like God wants us to do).

Hymn/Prayer: "Faith of our fathers! We will love both friend and foe in all our strife; And preach Thee, too, as love knows how, by kindly words and virtuous life. Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to Thee till death!" (Frederick W. Faber)