Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely
say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward
in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before
you. (Matthew 5:11-12)
Rejoice
and be glad? When someone attacks you because you say you’re a Christian? When
someone claims you did something you didn’t? When someone attacks you because
you did what Scripture says is right? Yes, rejoice and be glad because you have
a reward coming and because you’re in good company.
I’ve mentioned Viktor Frankl before. He was a psychiatrist who was put in a work camp in World War II. He watched the people who survived, and the people who didn’t survive, even though they lived through the experience. One of his biggest observations was that if you have a why, you can survive the whats and hows.
In the King James version, Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” More modern versions translate “perish” as “without restraint,” but the idea is similar. Those who have no vision of the future cannot hope for justice or fear it, and without those, there is no depth to which they cannot sink. Without a why, there is no means to a how when the what is not happy. With a why, one can rejoice and be glad, even when dark times come. This is also why we must warn those who insult, who lie, and who bully, because it is only if they have vision that they will turn from their wicked ways.
I’ve mentioned Viktor Frankl before. He was a psychiatrist who was put in a work camp in World War II. He watched the people who survived, and the people who didn’t survive, even though they lived through the experience. One of his biggest observations was that if you have a why, you can survive the whats and hows.
In the King James version, Proverbs 29:18 reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” More modern versions translate “perish” as “without restraint,” but the idea is similar. Those who have no vision of the future cannot hope for justice or fear it, and without those, there is no depth to which they cannot sink. Without a why, there is no means to a how when the what is not happy. With a why, one can rejoice and be glad, even when dark times come. This is also why we must warn those who insult, who lie, and who bully, because it is only if they have vision that they will turn from their wicked ways.
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