Blessed Insults and Accusations

God of every blessing, I invite You to shape my soul with Your words and inspire my life through Your works. Teach me to walk in the way of blessing.

Pause and pray

Today I reflect on Jesus’ expansion on the blessing of persecution. This is the one Beatitude where He explains in further detail what it means to be persecuted, and what it means to be blessed.

Read Matthew 5:11-12

Insults and false accusations do not make me feel blessed. But I notice that Jesus says we are blessed when we receive these things ‘because of me.’ It is my allegiance to and identification with Jesus that is meant to bring about this persecution, and this blessing. This makes me consider: what aspects of my life are so clearly identifiable with Jesus that the powers which oppose Him will naturally also oppose me?

Jesus, will You bring to my mind someone who has insulted or slandered me? And will You help me to see them as You see them, to identify with Your love for them and Your desire to bless them and set them free?

Pause and pray

I pray now for those who would be my persecutors, my accusers, my enemies. I name them and bring them before You, asking that they would be loved and blessed in real and practical ways. Where possible, and where wise, would You use me to do that?

Pause and pray

I think of those who have gone before me, the prophets and the faithful – including those whose names are not recorded in any history – who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for allegiance with Jesus. I am not alone in this journey of persecution and blessing. I am in good company with this great cloud of witnesses, and with Jesus himself.

Help me Lord to trust You enough to rejoice and be glad in the face of hardship and insult, knowing that fellowship with You is my perfect and lasting reward.

Amen.