The Value Of Persecution

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us.

Daniel 3:17

On July 15, 2002, a seventeen-year-old Christian Pakistani girl resisted the sexual advances of a Muslim man in her workplace. Angry at her refusal, the man returned and doused her with acid. She was burned severely on her face and chest and lost sight in her right eye. The International Christian Concern lists sixty-eight countries around the world where there is severe persecution or discrimination against Christians.

When we read stories in the Bible of believers being thrown to the lions, put into a fiery furnace, stoned, beaten, or made to suffer other forms of torture (Hebrews 11:35–38), we tend to think in historical terms only. But the truth is, millions of saints around the world today live in daily fear of persecution, simply for identifying themselves as Christians. And it is even happening in America, though in much more subtle ways.

The irony associated with persecution is striking: historically, there has been a direct correlation between the growth of the church and the degree of persecution it suffers. God is never so present in our lives as when we suffer in His name.