Dealing with opposition

Remove from me reproach and contempt, For I have kept Your testimonies. Princes also sit and speak against me, But Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors. My soul clings to the dust; Revive me according to Your word. – Psalm 119v22-25

I almost feel bad typing these words this morning. The subject is opposition and dealing with enemies. Though I can't deny that we in the West do have some opposition, at this very moment there is a pastor in Iran who is facing execution by hanging for his faith in Christ. I do not mean by any means to compare our opposition to what he is facing. I have been praying for him and his family and trust that God will use this for His glory.

Opposition like my brother in Iran is facing is tragically nothing new. It is in fact, the norm. That is what Jesus told us that living the Christian life would be like. Opposition is the norm. Being attacked by the world is what we can expect. Our dear brother is just one example of the hundreds of cases around the world.

The sad truth is that we can expect opposition. While the West has escaped most of it for a few hundred years we cannot expect it to continue. We are seeing some signs of it now.

How do we handle it? How does the pastor in Iran handle it?

The only hope is to turn to the word of God. We pray and we meditate on the word of God. We are not going to find our delight in the world, but we can find our delight in His word. We depend on our Lord to revive our hearts in the midst of the opposition.

When that happens the enemy cannot win!