Acts 14:19-28 tells us that “some Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.” Paul was far from dead. He moved on, but Paul’s life as an apostle of Jesus was one filled with sufferings. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul recounted some of the sufferings that he endured for Jesus. “Five times at the hands of the Jews, I received forty lashes minus one; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, and I passed a night and a day on the deep. On frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at seas, dangers among false brothers; in toil and in hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fasting, through cold and exposure … and all the while, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.” And as we know, martyrdom awaited him in Rome at the end of his apostolic journeys. What an incredible story! It’s the material that thriller movies are made out of. In the midst of it all, Paul never waivered in his fidelity to Jesus.
Few of us are going to come anywhere near matching Paul’s apostolic sufferings, but all of us, in some way, will experience some suffering for the name of Jesus. It may be as simple as one of today’s secular people dismissing our treasured Christian values – might even be a family member. It might be more drastic and result in our openly being discriminated against because of our beliefs. It might be a deep inner suffering such as living with adult children who no longer believe. Suffering for Jesus takes many different forms. Like Paul, we are asked to move on from the hurts and continue our journey witnessing to Jesus in our little corner of the world.
Andre's Hearth 