It’s a proven fact that people are scared of what they do not know. I’ve already said here that I’m scared of storms because I have absolutely no control over what happens to me in these situations. But as Christians, people can persecute us because they are scared about what they do not know about. They have a perception of Christians that we all wear sandals, have beards and carry around a bit print bible around with us telling everyone they are sinners.
When Jesus was born, there were people who knew the scriptures and there were people who knew that a messiah for the Jews was going to present itself at some point, but there were people who had heard of Jesus and what had been said about him even when he had just been born and were afraid of the implications. One of which, and most famously was Herod.
Matthew 2: When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5"In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written:
6" 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.
Herod was obviously a smart bloke, he knew about the old testament teaching (although they were the teachings, and not called the old testament at the time) and he knew that someone was going to come one day to free the Jews, and more importantly the whole world, but the one thing that he was most scared about was loosing his crown as Jesus was going to be the “King of the Jews” and for a King that was the worst thing that could happen because he would have to leave his lavish lifestyle.
There are people around today that are scared of the same thing, but not in exactly the same way, they are scared of loosing their lifestyles because they know that it goes against God. As I’m sure a lot of you already know, its easier to follow the devil who promises so much but never delivers, then it is to follow God who promises very little but very important promises and delivers every time.
I know myself that one of the biggest things that was holding me back from coming back to God was that I was happy, superficially but I was happy. I had many things, I used to enjoy the world and all that it had to offer, and I was scared of loosing those things to follow some guy who lived 2000 years ago. The things which I have gained from following Christ has been better than what the world has to offer a million times over.
As Christians we get tempted and we get swayed into thinking that Jesus some how threatens our happiness because his teachings are against what the world offers, but we need to remember how much we have gained from having a life with God and having a walking relationship with Jesus, and how can we justify throwing all that away to go back to what the world offers? We can’t.
God really doesn’t want us to be governed by masses of rules and streams of regulations, we can be so much happier knowing that we are working for the true and living God, and that our ultimate gain is that not of superficial happiness but of eternal forgiveness and a everlasting life with God. How amazing is that? We shouldn’t feel threatened by God because as a father, he wants the best for us and the things that the world offers are not always the best for us at that time. We need to trust in God’s provision as well as his plan.
I pray that we do not feel that we are missing out because we don’t have enough of the world’s offerings, but we feel that we are being filled up with Jesus and his offerings, which are immeasurable and everlasting.
In Christ I stand.
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